


Yu, Ayumu, and Setsuna's Valentine Triangle

by TinBoy752



Series: Days of the 2nd Year Trio [6]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS (Video Game), ラブライブ! 虹ヶ咲学園スクールアイドル同好会 | Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Doukoukai (Anime)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Chinese New Year, Cooking, F/F, Flashbacks, Love Triangles, Polyamory, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Secret Crush, Secret Relationship, Slice of Life, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 11:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29009772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinBoy752/pseuds/TinBoy752
Summary: In this multi-chapter part, Yu and Setsuna prepare their valentine's gift for Ayumu. The two are also having a bit of jealousy on each other knowingly Yu is familiar of Setsuna's chemistry with Ayumu. This does not stop their triangle from breaking up. In three days, the story will explore each pairing and their development on the faithful day.Update: Setsuna and Ayumu's Chapter and Epilogue are added.What will happen after this part? Check an important announcement at the last chapter's end note.This is ending of 'Ayumu and Setsuna' Arc.
Relationships: Takasaki Yuu/Uehara Ayumu, Takasaki Yuu/Yuuki Setsuna, Uehara Ayumu/Yuuki Setsuna
Series: Days of the 2nd Year Trio [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2078415
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Prologue - Sei-san

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and Chapter 5 take place in the past.

When Yu and Ayumu were in grade school, they were playing together at a school near the residential complex in Odaiba. Among the backyard of the school, Yu and Ayumu are classmates and they are playing with 8 kids. Today’s game is playing tag and the girl with short black hair with a mind of a young hero in training. While she is popular with the young boys, some young girls even took interest in her. Yu and Ayumu were also cheering for her.

“Okay, let’s play tag around the grassfields before the next bell rings.” A girl with short black hair announced with her fellow classmates. “Ready?”

The kids prepare their legs and anticipate the girl to shout… “Go!”

The girl starts chasing the other kids in a game of tag. With such adrenaline comes an expected thrill, Yu, who is wearing a black shirt with hiragana ‘Po’, white long-sleeved undershirt, blue shorts, and black shoes grabs hold on a wrist of a girl wearing a pink hoodie, yellow skirt, white knee highs, and red shoes. 

“Come on!” Yu called, she started sprinting, forcing the girl she held on to follow along.

She drags her away from populous places that the tagging girl can easily tag and runs to the other side of the school. From the grassfields, they are now in the playground. Yu is taking her somewhere behind the school.

“Wait!” The girl said while she was dragged by Yu “Tell me, who are you?”

“Yu.” The girl in black hair introduced herself as “Yu Takasaki. You are?”

“Ayumu.” The girl with light pink hair introduced herself as “Ayumu Uehara.”

The two left the playground and into the other side of the school, they are already out of the girl’s sight and hide somewhere behind a wall. The two briefly rest, Ayumu takes a second to see Yu in person and she is different from other girls she met. She looks boyish on the outside, but her voice is girly enough to distinguish.

“Where are you taking me to?” Ayumu asked her new friend.

“A spot.” Yu pointed to another building across the street “They cannot find us there. Come on!” Yu lead the way to the other side, leaving the school grounds for a while.

“I thought you looked like a boy when I first looked at you.” Ayumu said innocently.

“I am not a boy.” Yu annoyingly replied “I am a girl.”

“It’s okay.” Ayumu said, the two watch for oncoming vehicles before crossing “Your parents seem to be my mom’s favorite.” Since there are no vehicles to pass by, the two cross the pedestrian lane.

“Thanks.” Yu thanked the girl “My parents play instruments at work.”

After crossing the street, they are one block away from their school and see a greenhouse. The greenhouse is filled with flora of beautiful kinds. There are luscious plants and colorful flowers in front of them.

“What is this place?” Ayumu asked.

“A greenhouse near the complex.” Yu answered while looking at the garden “Isn’t this beautiful?”

“Yes.” Ayumu replied and followed around the building “Are we hiding in here?”

“I may be stupid but we have to go back soon.” Yu said, much to Ayumu’s curiosity about her plan to get away from the girl.

“So this is your plan.” Ayumu said with a giggle, the two continued their merry-way around the building.

When the two made it to the flowers, the two saw butterflies fluttering around the flowers, some flowers even growing on potted trees. Yu wanted to pick one flower for her clothes. Her parents would want to buy one for her someday once their work is done. Ayumu loves to see each unique shape of flowers, it is not just the roses, carnations, or gerberas. Some even have shapes she had never seen before in grade school books. She then found a flower with a yellow pollen at the center and pink petals. Unlike other flowers, the flower she picked up is numerous with a lighter pink. When Ayumu came back to Yu, she turned and saw the flower in her hand.

“Eh…” Yu asked with hands on her hips “What is this, Ayumu-chan?”

“It’s a flower.” Ayumu answered “I found it lying in the ground.” Upon looking closer, Yu did not see this kind of flower before when she first found this place.

“This looks good on you.” Yu complimented.

“Are you sure?” Ayumu asked, she then tried to wear it on her right hair bun. Her hair bun is the distinguishing feature Ayumu has among her classmates.

“Yes.” Yu answered, she then complimented “Ayumu-chan is so cute.”

“-chan?” Ayumu gasped and she has never had anyone say her name with the honorific before, Yu is her first friend to say that “I uh… Thanks, Yu-chan. You can call me Ayumu?” Ayumu smiled with a blush as a return, Yu then became flustered when she asked that question.

“But- We are not close enough to say it.” Yu kindly answered, her green-tipped twintails tingle a bit from the question “We just met.”

“It’s okay, you can call me Ayumu-chan for now.” Ayumu answered, the two laughed at each other until…

“I found you!” The girl shouted in unison, the two looked to where the shout came from. They two are indeed tagged by her “Ayumu-san, thanks for taking Yu-san my hostage.” The three girls left the greenhouse and crossed the street back to school, the bell now ringing. How the girl had most stamina among the classmates is a debate for Yu and Ayumu.

“You caught us.” Yu then asked if she remembers her name “Sei-san, right?”

“That is correct.” Sei then introduced herself “Call me Sei. You must be Yu-san and Ayumu-san.”

“NIce to meet you.” Ayumu greeted the short hair girl back.

“Where did you find us at a greenhouse?” Yu asked.

“I was looking at you two and ran into the playground.” Sei answered how she knew they were running away from her “I tag all of our classmates first before finding you two. Teacher is going to be mad at us if we don’t go back.”

“You’re right.” Yu answered and she led the way for the two girls “Let’s go.” Sei followed along while Ayumu briefly looked back at the greenhouse.

“Nn...” Ayumu then bid farewell to the building “Bye, greenhouse.”

Ayumu, Yu, and Sei are fast friends on their first day of grade school. The three share a bond throughout the year. A bond that follows their dreams and making it come true in their passion for school idols. However, it was not all about good beginnings and good endings. By the time their second grade began, Sei went into trouble in the middle of the year and her mother decided to transfer her away from the school Yu and Ayumu studied after Sei finished her second grade. In third grade, the three eventually split up and bid their farewell, leaving Yu and Ayumu the only childhood friends they have become. 

How it happened between the three seems to be a clouded past for now. The multi-chapter part of Yu, Ayumu, and Setsuna's Valentine Triangle will begin.


	2. YuuSetsu’s Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> February 13. Yu meets Setsuna to prepare goodies for their club as part of the Nijigasaki Valentine’s Fair. They started first on their cakes, Yu particularly wanted to try baking a cake with Nana’s help. While baking, Yu wants to reaffirm Nana if her relationship with Ayumu will not get in the way of her relationship with Ayumu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yu and Setsuna Chapter. Sound of TOKIMEKI will be highlighted by ‘Accompanying Music: (X Music)’ if anyone would like to play it and read the story.

Note: Sound of TOKIMEKI will be referenced with accompanying music. Play if you like to know where the mood shifts.

February 13 is the day before Valentine’s Day and Odaiba is getting warmed up for the event that boys and girls will love. The preparations begin as Yu is taking her sling bag and bringing coupons in her passholder. Before she leaves the apartment, she texted Ayumu that she will be visiting Setsuna’s apartment for a surprise. Ayumu takes notice of her text message and replies with a sticker ‘Do your Best!’

_Last night, Yu and Ayumu chatted after a movie date for their preparations in the Nijigasaki Valentines’ Fair. They are on their beds so they call together in video call._

_“The movie was intense and romantic, Yu.” Ayumu summarized what happened from the movie they watched “She meets her long lost friend in college and starts to warm up to each other. A few school activities later, she finally makes a move on her and starts dating. In the fall season, they face trouble in a love triangle because of their neighboring friend who also loves the two. In the end, they three made their decision and the original couple moves on.”_

_“Yeah, the long hour almost made me sleep.” Yu anwsered with a chuckle._

_“Yu, did you happen to sleep?” Ayumu asked with a frown, taking Yu to think twice._

_“No, not actually.” Yu said truthfully “You tapped my head when we were at the boring moments.”_

_“Come to think of it, you will be going to Setsuna’s apartment.” Ayumu then asked “Are you accompanying her tomorrow for the Valentine’s Fair?”_

_“Yeah.” Yu answered as she set the call aside and played ‘Love Live! School Idol Festival ALL STARS’_

_“Another weekend of work for you, huh.” Ayumu said kindly, she then playfully teased her “I’ll be so lonely without you.” Yu reacted to her tease with a grin._

_“Ayumu, I will be back tomorrow night.” Yu answered back “Besides, my body is ready.”_

_“Okay, I trust Setsuna as you do.” Ayumu said before she turned off the video call “Sleep well, Yu. Goodnight.”_

_“You too.” Yu hung up with her and time hit 0:00 “I forgot my daily tasks.” Yu then continues her time playing the game until the tasks are complete._

Accompanying Music: 隠れた本心

Back to the Present… Yu giggles and locks the apartment. Before Yu goes to Setsuna’s apartment, she has to meet Setsuna at the garden nursery in Odaiba. The garden nursery also has a greenhouse as their extension. The greenhouse has since changed the last time she and Ayumu visited. It is now home to various species of flowers and plants from in and out of Japan, it even included uncommon flora from South America and Europe, both showing delicate prices to take home.

“Sir, how much does my bouquet cost?” Yu asks the florist.

“That’ll be 3,000 Yen, Ms. Takasaki.” The florist reveals the price to Yu, she pays her bouquet of flowers as promised. He then turns to Setsuna who also reserved a bouquet of flowers from him “Ms. Setsuna, yours cost 2,800 Yen, plus the pink plush bear.”

“I’ll take it.” Setsuna accepts the price and pays it to the florist as well.

While the florist prepares Setsuna’s bouquet, the two happen to notice the change of the greenhouse. It brings them nostalgic memories from that time.

“Isn’t this amazing how the greenhouse changes every year?” Yu asks.

“Yeah.” Setsuna replies “The flowers looked more unusual than it used to be if I remember.”

“Do you visit here often?” Yu asks again.

“Only a few times with my parents.” Setsuna answers, she shows the reward she got from her mother “They visit here once in a while for flower arrangement every time we have a visitor.”

“A reward card. No wonder why you get discounts from the nursery.” Yu answers with jealousy towards her, this jealousy is just about how she came prepared from buying flora at the nursery.

“Works every time.” Setsuna teases her. Once the florist finishes preparing the bouquet, Setsuna picks it up and the two leave the store.

An hour later, the two are at Hanamaru Store. These days, the store is packed today with discounts from confectionery, vegetables, and desserts due to the fact Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. The two aren’t worried about it since they have a shopping list for them to follow. This is the second time Setsuna is buying groceries with a partner.

“Yu-san, I’ve been thinking of baking a cake for you and Ayumu-san.” Setsuna says. “If you’re interested, I can teach you about baking.”

“You do?” Yu then says in a dreamy mood, she has been waiting to cook with her “I’ve always wanted to cook at home. I only know frying food and making soup.”

“You must be a girl who prefers fast food.” Setsuna chuckles after saying it playfully.

“That’s not true.” Yu says steadfastly “Ayumu usually cooks food for me. I only return the favor by lending out a hand, whether it be dancing or cleaning the apartment.”

When the two reached the Confectionary section, Setsuna found cake mixes on sale. She taps Yu’s shoulder and she looks at her.

“What flavor do you like on Valentine’s Day?” Setsuna asks her girlfriend “Red Velvet, Devil’s Food, or Custard?”

“I’m pretty sure I like to try Custard Cake.” Yu answers “Ayumu likes the Red Velvet one.” Setsuna nods and understands as she tip-toes herself up to three stacks getting the cake mixes because the stacks are almost at her height.

The cake mixes are in the cart. Setsuna and Yu also have other groceries to buy in the same store, flour cocoa, salt, butter, sugar, and chocolate kisses. One thing they must buy before tomorrow is a hand mixer. They find one affordable enough for both of them to use and check the rest at the cashier. They share their expenses to check their groceries out and the two leave the store.

Yu and Setsuna are prepping as much as possible for the school’s Valentine’s Fair this week. Today is Sunday and the second time Yu and Setsuna are hanging out on a weekend. This time, Yu is visiting Setsuna’s apartment. The residential complex Setsuns lives is different from her and Ayumu with different interior templates and the center of the complex have stores on the ground floor for convenience of the tenants. When Yu and Setsuna reach the floor of the latter’s apartment, they meet Mrs. Nakagawa who is actually Setsuna’s mother. With her hands full, Setsuna calls out her mother.

“Mom!” Setsuna calls her mother “Are you going to work today?”

At this time, Mrs. Nakagawa does not know Nana is Setsuna.

“Yes, Nana-chan.” Mrs. Nakagawa answers “The apartment is yours for the afternoon. Your father needs me for an urgent errand from abroad. Who is your friend?” She glances at the girl with green-tipped twintails.

“Yu Takasaki.” Yu bows and greets the mother “Nana’s friend from the Music Course.”

“Nice to meet you, Yu-chan.” the mother says nicely, she then recalls a friend that became friends with her daughter “I remembered you a long time ago, you must be one of her classmates from school.”

“Huh?” Yu asks out of confusion as she does not know if she recalled a memory.

“Nana is an honor student from your grade school for first grade.” Mother Nakagawa taps Yu’s head verbally and she realizes that before.

“Oh yeah, Nana-chan.” Yu finally recalls it.

“Yeah.” Setsuna says out of confusion too. She too does not know if she recalls her memory with Yu at an elementary school.

“Why did you forget, Yu-chan?” Mother Nakagawa playfully asks Yu, she then checks her phone and leaves the apartment “I’m sure you’ll do fine with her after seeing you host the School Idol Festival. Take care of my daughter.”

“I will.” Yu then bids farewell to Mother Nakagawa and Setsuna puts down her bag and waves goodbye to her mother.

Sometime later, the two entered Setsuna’s apartment and Yu became infatuated with the cleanliness of the apartment. The Nakagawa household is not much of a modern family she expects, Setsuna’s room, however is ridden of her hobbies due to her mother’s strict household. It is no secret that Yu, Ayumu, and the club knows Setsuna is not allowed to bring merch home, whether it be anime merch, video games, figures, or anything about otaku entertainment.

Even since the events of the School Idol Festival, Mother Nakagawa seems to think of loosening up household rules on her daughter. Setsuna also received high credit from the student council president role. Although she demoted her role from the president, she is still part of the student council as a secretary, a role before the vice-president. When Mother Nakagawa heard the news, she did not scold her and instead gave a pat on the back for her presence and due diligence at school.

Time passes and Yu and Setsuna take out the silverware needed to make confectionery and prepare the food in hand.

“Did mom know that I’m Setsuna?” The named girl asks Yu while checking for recipes.

“I don’t know.” Yu answers “I might have remembered someone named Nana when we were at school but I forgot if I met her before.”

“I’m pretty sure the Nana you know might have been in front of you.” Setsuna then asks a series of questions that Yu might have known about her “Do you know much about her?”

“Let’s see…” Yu thinks beyond the question from her brain. Her childhood memory is mostly occupied about her and Ayumu but she also remembered the time Nana was their acquaintance whenever she and Ayumu met her. “She is a friendly bookworm, she is serious about studying for high grades. The classmates call her a prodigy of a regular family.”

“Interesting.” Setsuna answers with a joking tone “That is me, Nana Nakagawa.”

“Of course.” Yu sarcastically answers, she then prepares her recipes for Custard Cake. She then asks Setsuna “Anyway, have you found the recipe that we will make for Valentine’s Day?”

“I haven’t thought of it.” Setsuna says after realizing what their activity is going to be this week “We already have suggestions from the Club but…”

* * *

Accompanying Music: トキメキを求めて

**Last Week…**

_Nijigasaki High School Idol Club is up into the list of the following clubs to be fully involved in the upcoming Nijigasaki Valentine’s Fair with 5 other clubs, including School Idol Association. The rivals are up full of ideas from the Kasumin BOX. The rivals bet on what activity they will set for their booth._

_“Suggestions for the Kasumin BOX are gonna be stiff neck-in-neck.” Yu said while flipping through a pile of suggestions “20 suggestions wanted a confession booth, 19 wanted a cafe, another 21 wanted a gaming lounge, others had several different ideas. Any ideas?”_

_“We cannot just do all three and have a go.” Kasumi noted “Shioko already explained that we can host an activity other clubs don’t do. We will be the last to suggest an activity for them before it begins.” After a minute, the rivals decided to choose one of three activities: Confession Booth, Gaming Booth, and Cafe Booth. Ain’t these choices obvious for a modern Nijigasaki student?_

_“We will narrow down to three from the majority.” Setsuna then called for a booth vote “For each representative of the year, which activity should we do for the fair?” To start the debate, Shizuku raised her hand and chose an obvious booth._

_“How about a confession booth?” Shizuku asked as she gave a reason on that booth “Kasumi-san and I have always shown the truth comes out from a confession. We even talked about how we liked our hobbies together.” this prompted Kasumi to look away and blush from her reason, one rival of course wanted to counteract the suggestion._

_“That’d be pretty unnerving to hold a confession booth.” Emma recursively responded, she then chose a booth that she is fond of deliciously “I’m going for a cafe booth since Kasumi can bake, Kanata can cook food, and I can set up tea for everyone to share.” Kanata hummed in Emma’s defense while Kasumi smirks mischievously. Ai then raised her hand and she has the last booth that she and Rina already took from their course._

_“I wanna try a gaming booth for once.” Ai suggested “Ai-san and Rinari have shared a bond together when we play fighting games and dungeon crawlers. Setsu, wanna join?” Of course, Setsuna is fond of those hobbies, so she decided to immediately jump to Ai’s suggestion. The other rivals now pick on the booths._

_“Really?! That’d be great.” Setsuna gleefully said “I’m going for that booth.” Ai made a mischievous look towards Shizuku and Emma. At the same time, Karin jumped to Shizuku’s vote._

_“Emma, don’t mind me if I choose the Confession booth.” Karin teased Emma with the junior’s vote, much to Emma’s dismay._

_“What?! Come on, Karin-chan.” Emma persuaded._

_“Kanata-chan would like to go for the cafe booth.” Kanata defended Emma by joining her vote._

_“I will be at the confession booth.” Ayumu walked into Shizuku’s vote._

_“Kasumin is at the cafe booth.” Kasumi shrugged off her senpai and sided with Emma. With only Yu left, her choice will now finalize the vote._

_Confession Booth: Shizuku, Karin, and Ayumu_

_Cafe Booth: Emma, Kanata, and Kasumi_

_Gaming Booth: Ai, Rina, and Setsuna_

_“This leaves Yu-san to get the winning vote.” Setsuna and the rivals look at their manager “Which activity would you like to go?” Yu had her eyes open for ideas. It took her a minute to think of a booth that her club will do. Eventually, pressure got into her mind and sighed to finalize the decision._

_“Is a Confession Booth gonna be a good idea?” Yu nervously asked, she then stated a reason on her vote “Maybe an activity that will lighten up your fans’ desires for a day will be a good cause to say.” The Confession Booth, voted by Shizuku, Ayumu, and Karin, won Yu and the other booths are set aside._

_“Good choice, Yu-senpai.” Shizuku valiantly said and was impressed._

_“Yu-chan, you seem to be biased for Ayumu-chan.” Emma said without a doubt, she is a good loser to accept._

_“Yuyu really loves Ayu-pyon, ya know.” Ai teased her fellow second year._

_“C-come on. It’s not like I have a choice…” Yu then jumped to her own defense and looked away from Ai’s words “I can’t just choose one.”_

_With the clock ticking to ten minutes left, Setsuna wrote an activity application form to the Student Council with their activity, Confession Booth, as their choice. The day passed normally with everyone having varying impressions on setting up the Confession Booth for the Nijigasaki Valentine’s Fair._

* * *

**Back to the Present…**

“I forgot we will be doing the confession booth.” Setsuna continues with her mouth zigzagged and feeling embarrassed to say. Yu realizes it and forgets to recall “You voted in that booth, Yu-san. What will you expect if one of us gets a love confession?”

Accompanying Music: ウキウキワクワクスクールライフ

“I think it’ll be cute that all of us get a love confession from each other.” Yu says without a doubt in her mind, Setsuna’s cheeks grow red and squeals quietly. The blur between her and Yu is close but she decides to focus the task in hand..

“I… I think I should start the oven.” Setsuna prepares the oven to preheat and set it to 200°C.

Setsuna begins baking her cake first. She followed the recipe as careful as she can be. Yu is wondering how her home became a normality of hers and Ayumu’s. The furniture and interior design was anything above what they afford. The TV Set, Blu-Ray player, shelves of collectibles from Nakagawa parents, and the furniture chosen for the apartment.

“Setsuna-chan-” Yu says as she looks at Nana, the latter immediately switches to her glasses.

“It is Nana-chan today.” Nana, real name of Setsuna, corrects her “What do you think of my home?”

“Pretty decent.” Yu answers, she knows Nana is right at her side as she looks down the shelf to see a disc collection. One particular look at the collection is Nana’s Blu-Ray collection, it varies from Shounen, Action, Fantasy, Slice of Life, and Romance-Comedy titles, some even came from printed media. “Your mother kept your Anime Blu-Rays at the shelf?”

“Yeah, they’re pretty sealed to future proof it.” Nana answers while she sets her mixer automatically “That’s the only thing she allowed me to showcase it. The rest of my stuff is mostly kept under a suitcase.” She moves to prepare the cake mix while the mixture is mixing.

“Is it okay if I can look?” Yu asks, she opens the door to Nana’s room.

“Just look at the red suitcase.” Nana says loudly to Yu as the latter is already at her room “The black suitcase means nothing.”

Inside the room, Yu sits down on Nana’s bed to observe around. She also notices the opened wardrobes. Yu rolls towards the wardrobe and fixes herself up to crouch and open the drawer on her left, revealing the red suitcase, black suitcase, and various clothes she wears throughout the day. She opens the red suitcase and pays no attention to the other.

In said suitcase, the inner cover is no doubt filled with video games, manga, light novels, and even the famous CHASE! costume from the first Nijigasaki live show. She recalls the details of Setsuna’s CHASE! costume when she hit her with a metaphorical stage that swept her mind into flames. She was the first school idol that inspired her anyway.

Few minutes later, Nana is almost done preparing her cake and sets it in the oven at the appropriate heat and time needed to completely bake. She sets the toothpick in advance as she goes to her room to check on Yu. When she enters the room, she sees Yu checking her CHASE! costume and responds with a passionate smile much to the latter’s curiosity.

“Yu-san.” Nana answers diligently “Let me teach you.” Yu nods in agreement and sets the costume back to her suitcase.

Back to the living room, Nana opens the Custard Cake mix Yu wanted to try and it reveals the pack and recipe booklet. She opens the booklet and finds three recipes that they could try around the cake mix. Yu is first instructed by Nana to split the eggs from yolks and whites in separate bowls, she beats the egg whites mixture until it comes into form, she sets it aside for later use. She beats egg yolk with sugar in another bowl. Nana gives Yu a small vial of vanilla extract from a refrigerator.

“I didn’t know vanilla only needs a small amount.” Yu looks at the small vial in her hand “The ones I saw on TV usually come in small bottles.”

“They come in bottles because they’re for wholesale and small businesses.” Nana takes Yu’s hand and checks the melted butter if fully melted from the oven’s radiance “My mom bought either a small vial or small bottle depending on the frequency that we bake.”

“Is the butter melting already?” Yu asks, then looks at what Nana sees. “Of course.”

Yu adds vanilla and butter into the same bowl until it is equally distributed, she then adds flour and continues beating it. While Yu is beating the mixture, Nana slowly pours a carton of milk into Yu’s bowl. The progress Yu made took her a quarter of an hour to make the mixture, Nana continues to check if her adjustment on the custard cake mix is ready. Once Yu completely mixes the custard cake mix, Nana checks on her bowl and prepares the egg whites Yu earlier prepared. She starts folding the egg whites into the batter. With three scoops from the bowl, she finishes the batter.

“There.” Nana says in unison and wipes her hands from the stains she got from the spatula “If I recall, I have a medium square tin for the oven.” Yu crouches below the sink to check for any tray that she can use to bake another cake. She then found the tray on her left, she reached for it and stood up to show it to Nana.

“I found one.” Yu calls “Nana-chan, should we try one tin first to save some?”

“I think so.” Nana replies while checking her cake in the oven “The batter is plenty enough to take second chances.”

With the oven ringing a bell, Nana pulls out her cake from the oven and Yu puts her custard cake into the oven. She sets the timer to 45 minutes at the same temperature that Nana set for her cake. Nana earns a motherly streak today teaching Yu on baking a cake. Although Yu’s instructions are different from hers, she was able to check the common things she has to follow for every different cake she will be baking.

“I think we have a few minutes to spare while the cake is hot.” Yu stretches her back and her hands from the work “Do you have a party game that we can play?” Nana carefully puts her cake into the table and cools it down.

“I have a ‘Plumber Party’ video game but it is in my room.” Nana says cheerfully, she is excited to play a video game with a visitor for a long time “Race to get 3 Wrenches?”

“Alright.” Yu cheers on.

Nana and Yu play a quick video of Plumber Party and, with set rules, take their next ten minutes play the game full of cruel, fun, or even impossible minigames. For the game to be made for children sure gives a polarized effect for the fans and players. After ten minutes, Nana is the winner of the party game and Yu wallows in defeat.

“Ah! I lost by one more wrench.” Yu berates “I’m not good at these kinds of games.” Nana laughs as part of her victory rights.

“We can play the mobile game version and we can look up at videos with all minigames.” Nana says in hindsight, she then recalls their stats in All Stars game and recalled the recently-finished Super Big Live “Yu-san, at what place are you in SBL?” Nana stands up and pulls Yu up to return themselves to the main room.

“Top 5K in Voltage Ranking.” Yu answers.

Yu and Nana are now on their seats with a bit of lunch on the table. Nana’s cake is among the highlights with leftover chicken from the refrigerator as their main course and a few bits of vegetables. Nana knows her mother does not allow her to just eat anything but vegetables so, to stay healthy, she always brought her mixed vegetables or a vegetable dish to accompany. Nana pokes her cake with a toothpick and pulls it out to know that the toothpick came in clean.

“There.” Nana says with a knife slicing in quarts since the cake is fit for three servings “The Devil’s Food Cake is ready to serve. We can have some lunch while we’re at it.”

“I think I should taste the cake first.” Yu says with her first dibs on the cake.

“Sure. At your service.” Nana agrees and takes a slice of cake into Yu’s plate.

Yu and Nana start their lunch and express their appreciation for the food. Yu takes a chunk of the cake first and puts it in her mouth. When Yu first taste the cake, she felt a part of the cake that counteracts the sweet, delicious food and it flips it into something sour or bitter for the matter.

“What do you think?” Nana asks her taste tester. Of course, Yu isn’t having any negativity towards her but the cake tasted kinda bad to her taste buds. She decides to not spill the beans.

“The cake tastes… unique.” Yu lies briefly, her forehead grows gloomy from the taste.

“Heh? Cool, I can try it out at the club as well.” Nana wistfully answers and slices a chunk from her slice of the cake.

“Don’t tell me, isn’t this the same cake you and Ayumu baked when Kanata assigned you two at the Sweets Fair?” Yu asks before Nana celebrates.

“Is it?” Nana asks before she tastes it on her own. Much to Yu’s surprise, Nana did not have that aftertaste she got and instead just enjoyed her approach of the cake.

Time passes and the two are now watching an anime this afternoon. They did not check what time they started but Yu’s Custard Cake is close to finishing baking. The anime adaptation they are watching is a fantasy series as part of a crossover universe with other series from the same magazine.

“The anime almost got me torn.” Yu comments on the ending.

“Yeah, the movie explained the transition from the first season to the second season.” Nana calmly says while she stands up to check on the oven “The finale for the first season is just the beginning of the crossover universe.”

While Nana talks more about the upcoming details of the anime, Yu notices that she has been hanging out with Nana comfortably. She recalls that phone call the other night that she got jealous of her and Ayumu and she is not good at keeping her thoughts afloat when it comes to seeing Ayumu and Setsuna together. Well, would it be appropriate to tell her what she thinks of them? Are there any repercussions that might affect their lives? Only one way for her to find out and it is to be straight about her.

“Nana-chan.” Yu starts asking to start the conversation “Can I ask a question?”

Accompanying Music: 届かぬ想い

“Sure, what is it?” Nana asks as she turns to Yu, the latter then stands up to return to her seat at the table.

“How well did you and Ayumu get along?” Yu asks.

“Isn’t it obvious that we’ve been spending time together after the club was reformed?” Nana asks calmly, this makes Yu realize that she is not using words well, especially she slipped a mistake of not needing Nana alone back in the day.

“It’s not it.” Yu shakes her head, she later asks properly “I had poor choice of words. How close are you to Ayumu?” The question makes Nana freeze and the oven rings a bell.

“I am curious because Shizuku-chan told me you two fell into an accident on that day.” Yu continues while her mind plays along as if she is the timid one to express honestly. She recalls the accident a few weeks ago and how the actual show went. “In the actual play, I kinda cried out of excitement and jealousy when you two nearly kissed.”

_On that Wednesday, Shizuku’s Live Show, the crowd squealed out of excitement for Setsuna and Ayumu to nearly kiss onstage. Yu gasped at the moment of truth while Shizuku became impressed by her fellow subunit members to perform such a romantic yet indecent act. Yu kept her mouth open for discussions for them later but Setsuna and Ayumu are too embarrassed to recall that act._

“It was far from replicating the one in practice but it felt almost real.” Yu continues “I thought my heart almost broke when it happened until Shizuku-chan addressed me about your act. I have to admit that- I am jealous of both of you.” Yu admits she is jealous of Nana and Ayumu, and it hits her moderately. Not only is she getting second thoughts on it, but the decision she made earlier might have affected a flag that will not see a happy ending.

“You are?” Nana asks nervously and apologetically.

“It’s not that I have anything wrong with the two of you.” Yu tries to not be frowning towards Nana “It’s just- I’m not sure of myself if you two are not telling me something that I didn’t know. If you have feelings for Ayumu more than I do, I can respect that and still support each other.” Nana then giggles at her bashful explanation. Of course, she does not interfere with the details as she moves away from Yu.

“I noticed that feeling earlier than you did.” Nana then explains how she is familiar of what Yu is feeling, her jealous is no different Ayumu when it first began the infamous ‘Second Year Trio Drama’ “When Ayumu-san first started the drama, I sensed she had an issue of relying on you after I discovered your dream. When I told her about your dream, she slowly brewed but I didn’t have a problem telling it until you fazed out during an inter-school meeting. When we walked back home, we talked about her and you told me to go back to the club early. This isn’t the first time I heard of jealousy from the same year.” Nana’s wisdom made Yu brighten up a bit, following with a weak smile.

“You were looking out for us?” Yu asks, she is still at a doubt for words.

“Yes, isn’t it coincidental?” Nana tries to reason out.

“A little bit.” Yu answers. Nana approaches her and her hand hovers to one of her pigtails. She usually gets her pigtails touched by Ayumu as a sign of affection but, this time, Nana checks her pigtails with such an impression and her eyes glance at her own.

“It’s okay for you to be jealous, Yu-san.” Nana advises her fellow second year, she explains why she is not flinched from Yu’s confession “I get jealous all the time, watching LoveLive! performances, music videos, even Kasumi’s cuteness. You have a different kind of jealousy only close friends have: Love Jealousy.”

“I guess I am not much of a brave girl whenever I tell the truth around the same.” Yu admits defeat, at the same time, she developed assurance that Nana and Ayumu will not leave her alone if they ended together. 

“You will get over it soon. You’re still learning about how romantic relationships work.” Nana surely says “For that question earlier? Ayumu and I started becoming more than close friends. I told you so that I don’t want to hurt your feelings before a storm turns into a typhoon.” Yu realizes that Nana was helping her out with feelings and she is trying to understand what she is in with Ayumu and Setsuna. Of course, Yu is in a conflict of her own seeing her, Ayumu, and Setsuna in a love triangle. The love triangle is one of her concerns if Ayumu is her girlfriend and-

“Shit.”

Her words mutter when she suddenly sniffs a smoky scent from...

Accompany Music: キャッチミー！

“Yu-san!” Nana loudly wakes her up from the thought. Yu snaps back and looks around, Nana is alerting her that the oven is now smoking inside.

“Aargh!!” Yu screams panickedly “The oven!” She grabs her mittens from a convenient compartment, wears it and opens the oven without heeding Nana’s warning.

“Wait, the smoke!” Nana holds her nose while Yu takes the custard cake out of it “Don’t inhale it.” a big puff of smoke burst slowly into them, suffocating into a room full of monoxide fumes. Luckily, the fire alarms did not set up for some reason. It would have destroyed their lunch for good. Nana looks for a window or glass door quickly. She opens the front door from the living room and clears the smoke as possible.

“What have I done?” Yu panics as she almost destroyed someone else’s property “I destroyed your oven. I’M SO SORRY, NANA-CHAN!”

“No, the oven isn’t damaged but your cake is.” Nana calms her down and then realizes Yu shouted when she apologized to her “You don’t need to shout.”

After pulling the custard cake out of the oven, Yu, once again, drops her confidence and sees the disappointment of destroying her own cake with someone else’s oven. The custard is not much of a brownish-yellow color she expected, instead the cake became brownish and the texture is not smooth but ended up becoming firm from the overcook. And the top of the cake is mostly charred with nearly dark brown bits. Nana removes her glasses and becomes Setsuna in front of Yu. Nana is curious about what Yu’s custard cake tastes like, even if it is overcooked.

“I don’t know if you’ll like it.” Yu shamefully says while Setsuna eats her cake “Don’t tell me you’ll get a stomachache from my cake.” Setsuna chews slowly to check the flavor. It turns out, she did not taste anything bad. Rather it is spongy to chew, the custard partially retains the sweet flavor with some smoked parts. She swallows the smushed cake down her throat and she smiles at her.

Accompanying Music: はれ模様

“It is delicious, Yu-san.” Setsuna compliments her cake “Toasty but the flavor is a bit modified. I don’t know why but Custard Cake must be your favorite after all. The firm sponge feels like I’m in heaven.” Setsuna savors the aftertaste brought by her girlfriend’s cake, much to Yu’s satisfaction.

“I’m as half-bad as you are.” Yu happily says “You seem to tolerate any kind of food, do you?”

“Of course, desserts are everything to me.” Setsuna says with a sweet tooth. “Never have a good lunch or dinner without.”

“Sneak… Sneak…” Yu slowly leans to her nervously, she then holds Setsuna’s free hand and the latter notices her touch.

“Yu-san?” Setsuna tries to make eye contact with Yu, only then…

She receives a kiss from Yu, their lips in contact to make her surprised. Few seconds later, Yu directly goes into her mouth. The girl squirms surprisingly and she feels her tongue tasting her saliva and parts of the custard she just ate. Unlike how she kissed Yu, this kiss did not last longer. Yu pulls away from Setsuna, leaving a saliva trail between their mouths. Setsuna’s heart beats suddenly and audibly through her chest. Perhaps Yu wanted to kiss her directly because of payback from that winter Sunday. Yu savors her saliva and bits of her own cake before she starts opening her eyes again, leaving Setsuna strucken and red.

“Setsuna-chan, you’re so cute.” Yu passionately says, followed by her love confession “I love you so much.” She cuddles Setsuna with a warm hug. Their chests squeezing from the hug, their noses pecking together in such a cute mood, the two giggle sweetly while their eyes are looking at each other.

“You’re such a handful.” Setsuna pushes her away with shoulders, she grins at Yu’s expression “I cannot stay annoyed at your voice.” Setsuna hugs Yu back so that she can keep her company for the day.

_“Somehow… I think having Yu and Ayumu kiss me felt good today.” Setsuna thought of what she felt about Yu and Ayumu kissing her. She is so lucky to have girlfriends of the same year. If she goes for Yu, she can be glad to help Yu improve her livelihood for her future with Ayumu. If she goes for Ayumu, she can naturally bond with her as school idols and partners side-by-side in their daily activities at school, in return they can help out Yu._

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Setsuna-chan.” Yu greets her with the festivity for tomorrow.

“You too…” Setsuna finishes their moment, she looks at her wristwatch and she still has enough time to practice baking with Yu. “Now, let’s brush up your skills with cupcakes. We still have until the night to perfect.” Yu checks the time and it is still early, about 13:30. Setsuna prepares another set of recipes for her and Yu to practice, much to Yu’s dismay.

At Ayumu’s apartment, she is playing Love Live! School Idol Festival on her phone, playing Master Difficulty of an Aqours song. She just cleared the song and she later received Yu’s message in her messaging app. The girl opens her message and sees a selfie of Yu and Setsuna, alongside two finished products of their baked cakes, followed by tens of cupcakes in the oven. She then has a voice message, she taps it.

“Ayumu, I’m sorry.” Yu apologizes to her by the phone and the girlfriend receives it immediately.

“How the tables have turned, Yu.” Ayumu teases her via a text message, topping it off with a sticker ‘Good luck!’

It is fortunate enough that Yu understood well about her and Setsuna in a relationship. How Yu figures out about how polyamory relationships go will be up to her mind.

The day before Valentine’s Day will be busy for Yu and Setsuna. They baked cupcakes of various flavors, muffins that are topped with whipped cream and sprinkles, and one more cake for the last hour on Yu’s Custard Cake. With much effort and perseverance, Yu and Setsuna managed to bake tens of cupcakes in an hour, the next hour have them prepare five to seven muffins, and the last hour made them improve the custard cake again, this time with punctuality. The teamwork they put for the weekend will be worth it once the School Idol Club will be handling the confession booth tomorrow. The day ends on a usually good note, Yu becomes knowledgeable of baking, Setsuna knows the plan will be ready by tomorrow and keeps the work inside a warm storage and Ayumu will be waiting for Yu to come home and hear what she has to say about baking with Setsuna. Yu and Ayumu will be having their chapter next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The talk between Yu and Setsuna occupies the part of baking. In the end, the two are prepared for Valentine’s Fair tomorrow. With Dengeki G’s Magazine featuring Yu and Ayumu already out, a reference from that magazine and a honorable guest will be added to Yu and Ayumu’s Chapter.


	3. YuuPomu's Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> February 14. Yu and Ayumu chapter.  
> The two spend their demonstration on their club's confession booth to visitors and students, much to their varying reactions. Later in the day, Lanzhu offered Yu tickets to a Dragon Boat ride at the Sea Park. What do they think of spending the twilight on Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day?

February 14 is the day. That is right, Valentine’s Day. Nijigasaki High School is celebrating the Valentine’s Fair, the event lasts for 5 days from the 14th to 18th. School Idol Club and School Idol Association are slated to perform on separate days to entertain guests and students. The first day will be a notable one as the participating clubs will be the first to try out each others’ activities to exhibit in front of students and visitors. In the club room, the members of the School Idol Club are about to practice when suddenly. Kasumi made a surprising announcement coming from the Kasumin BOX.

“Everyone!” Kasumi calls attentively and urgently, the group turns heads on her with the BOX in her hands “Look at this BOX!”

“What’s going on, Kasumi-chan?” Yu asks her junior, she then takes a glance at the Kasumin BOX and it is nearly full, there are more than 50 pieces of paper inside the box.

“The Kasumin BOX is full of letters from other clubs!” Kasumi cheers, she places the box on a table and rummages inside “Let’s see, what do we have here?”

“Wait, a love letter for Ayumu?” Kasumi asks while looking at another paper “A love letter for me?” While rummaging, the rivals laugh at Kasumi to the stupor reminder that the papers are placed because of their booth.

“Isn’t this obvious your Kasumin BOX is now full of love letters?” Karin teased the junior.

“I know that, Karin-senpai.” Kasumin annoyingly answers “It is Valentine’s Day.”

The club already made an idea on the Confession Booth. The booth will have students be able to confess their love to another student, whether it be to one of the club members, staff, or someone from another school. The reward will sometimes be from chocolates, cupcakes, koppepan, or a slice of cake. Said rewards came from Kanata, Setsuna, Kasumi, and Yu as they are the one responsible for making the food. The rules are not limited to age, role, and distance so the booth will be about anything as long as the pair gets to understand their feelings or get along with each other. Chance of rejection is most likely but it will not be that severe.

Speaking of the booth, Shizuku, Karin, Ayumu, and Yu are already in talks of how they should be giving out rewards, Karin suggested to be based on how effective the scenario is, Ayumu and Shizuku would go for random chance, and Yu has no idea. The majority win goes to Ayumu and Shizuku: Giving out rewards at a random rate.

The first years process the list of confessions by receiver. On the first day, the nine members are getting love confessions from various sources. By popularity, Ayumu and Yu are among the first girls to listen to love confessions, leaving the rest of the group to watch or participate if one of them gets to read the letters. Yep, there is not a rule that prohibits anyone from the same club to enact a confession scene.

“Yu-san, Ayumu-san.” Kasumi, with visible jealousy to both, then proposes “Will you two start off the exhibition of our confession booth?” Cry them a river, the two are already popular on their own.

“Kasumi-chan…” Yu says her name to calm her down.

“We will be fine.” Ayumu comforts her junior, her hands on Kasumi’s shoulder “We’re already getting used to it. We can be first at everything.”

“Since when?” Shizuku endearingly asks her.

“After SIF.” Ayumu answers with a sweat drop in front of them, much to the laughter of everyone.

“Well, the confession booth is gonna be interesting.” Yu says with a worry in her head “What could go wrong?” Unfortunately for Yu, anything can go wrong. Quite in denial.

Outside the club room, the clubs set up their booths on the ground floor. Some even have prepared days before the week. Five clubs have different arrangements for different activities that they will be doing. School Idol Club’s Confession Booth is prepared with different approaches.

Two separate tables and four chairs, the booth clerk, played by Shizuku, dressed like Venus, a small cafe portion handled by Kanata and Ai, and a gift shop handled by Setsuna, Kasumi, and Ai. The remaining idols are stand-in with exception of Karin who unfortunately will have to occupy the afternoon for her modelling job.

Accompanying Music:  朝陽

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the Nijigasaki Valentine’s Fair will be open in five minutes…”

The announcement comes from Shioriko through a megaphone. The club leaders dash in to their respective clubs and give the news. School Idol Club and Association are taking the show first as Yu gives the news to her idols.

“Apparently, our club is chosen first to start the ride.” Yu says excitedly “We might happen to have dearest fans fawn over us.” With the announcement, Ayumu decides to breathe calmly and keep her cool in front of her fans who will confess her. The others prep up their positions.

Out of the dressing room, Shizuku comes out to showcase her new costume to the rivals. As promised, the white robe wrapped around her body showed that she will be portraying the Roman goddess of love, beauty, and desire.

“Senpai.” Shizuku asks her seniors “What do you think of Venus?” To the applause of many, the seniors give good remarks on the accuracy of the costume and the details on her dress.

“The costume looks so  _ buono _ , Shizuku-chan.” Emma sweetly compliments, Kasumi holds Shizuku’s hands with glimmers in her eyes.

“This is gonna knock the Association who’s boss at showing interest in School Idols.” Kasumi says, much to Shizuku’s confusion.

“This isn’t a competition, Kasumi-san.” Shizuku replies.

The front gate opens and the building housing many clubs is open for exhibition. Nijigasaki High School Idol Club prepares for what is going to be a good Valentine’s Fair. The students and visitors try out recreation from other club’s booths. School Idol Association is the most popular booth with the Bar Booth as their activity. School Idol Club handles the booth well with food and photo opportunities from other clubs and some visitors.

Accompanying: ミッション！

In the midday, the love confession exhibition begins with Ayumu getting a queue of people who are looking forward to meeting her. She has over twelve girls to meet who will confess their love to her. Ayumu is wearing her Present for You costume since the clothes fit well for the occasion and suggested by Setsuna. Her first suitor has to be Karin Asaka, her fellow club member and rival. Since Karin is one of the girls Ayumu admired, she has no problem giving a compliment or receiving it.

“Karin-san, Happy Valentine’s Day.” Ayumu greets her senior with a small box in her hands “You are so cool posing like a model and inspiring me to stay cool in the head from the heated stage.”

“Oh thank you, Ayumu-chan.” Karin thanks her and takes the box, she opens it and reveals pieces of handmade chocolate. Ayumu’s signature to her chocolates is the ribbon. She then asks her “Can I confess?”

“Huh?” Ayumu asks and before she knows it, Karin’s hand is placed on her chin, putting her eye contact on Karin and her mouth opens shortly in awe. The crowd near them begin watching them enact a love confession with excitement.

“I’m honored to be the first girl to be in the confession booth.” Karin forms her words to fawn the girl “So… I am in love with you. And your bunny-like heart.” Ayumu begins panicking inside but she decides to just blush and close her eyes, accepting the love confession silently and their fans squeal from the act. Not everyone is enjoyed though, look at Emma.

“Sono così geloso.” Emma says with a jaded look and crossing her arms while standing at the confectionary table (“I’m so jealous.”)

“Emma-chan, it’s just a pretend confession scene.” Kanata assures her fellow third year students while she hands out muffins to the customers.

“S-s-s… Sure, Karin-san.” Ayumu stutters to give back the love, it was all in her mind to just let it out “I love you too.” The line made the crowd go wild and some got jealous that a model is flirting with the leader of the School Idol Club. Meanwhile, Yu and Setsuna watch them over as if they pretend they did not see it coming.

“This is so interesting.” Yu obliviously says, much to Ayumu’s embarrassment that she had to say this while Yu is watching.

“I remembered one time a particular boy confessed that line to Ayumu-san.” Setsuna jokes with her.

“Huh?!” Yu asks out of curiosity “When?”

“Secret.” Setsuna lies and teases “Yu are so jealous.” With this answer, Yu pouts at her annoyingly before the two get back into their roles.

Ayumu now receives love letters for the next two girls. The girls share their love to her and compliment her costume during her live performances. She is glad enough to casually say thanks and loves them back. Afterwards, someone from the School Idol Association is in line for the confession to be enacted. The girl with short hair and a visible fang stands out as the disciplinary head of the student council: Shioriko Mifune. In her hands are a box of chocolates and a small bouquet of hydrangeas waiting to be received by the girl she admires.

“Ayumu-san. I am honored to be your friend when you changed my heart as a student council president.” Shioriko bravefully says and then passes the hydrangeas to her “I would like to confess: I love you so much.” School Idol Club members are cheering for Ayumu’s spirit to change Shioriko.

“Sure, thanks Shioriko-chan. I love you too.” Ayumu happily says and takes Shioriko’s hydrangeas, she also has her favorite chocolate in her free hand “It’s not much but I hope the chocolate I bought will be your favorite.” The two exchange chocolates together, she gets the strawberry chocolate while Shioriko gets the mint chocolate.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.” Shioriko bows to her and she grows a blush, knowing that she finally held her head up to tell her truth to Ayumu. School Idol Club members talk behind Ayumu’s back, she turns back and explains briefly how Shioriko became a good friend.

“I helped Shioriko-chan to confront Lanzhu and Mia and made a decision to continue our activities without interference.” Ayumu explains the gist of it.

Business continues as usual, but who is next are gonna be two of them from the club. Two of them from the same year and she knows who. Wearing her Saikou Heart for the enactment, Ai raises her light stick and waves it as her pom poms.

“Cheeze!” Ai cheers for Ayumu, this actually surprises her as Ai puts her hands above her head to imitate a bunny “Ai love you, Ayu-pyon! Just Ai and Ayu-pyon da pyon!” Much to Ayumu’s embarrassment, she covers her face and mutters nervously. She has not gotten over to accept bunny Ayumu as her favorite motif since she was a child.

“Stop with the buns!” Ayumu nervously says, everyone, including Yu, laughs at her. Ayumu peeks around her and sees Yu is having fun on her love confession antics. She decides to let nature choose her and uncovers her face in front of Ai “Okay, Ai-chan. Ayu-pyon loves you too. Just pyon.” Ai then proceeds to hug her energetically and she accepts the fellow second year’s offering.

“Looks like I captured the bunny, folks!” Ai exclaims and the crowd reacts happily.

Next up in Ayumu’s lineup of girls is none other than Setsuna or, to avoid exposure in front of students, Nana. Because she is with her on the spot, she did not prepare anything but her school uniform, apron, and glasses.

“Nana-chan?” Ayumu says the name and tries to downplay what she will be confessing to her “Let me guess, you’re confessing to me as if we’re in a shoujo manga.”

“Yeah.” Nana truthfully says, she then has both hands taking Ayumu’s hand, raising their hands as a sign of romantic context. She then looks at her “I love you, Ayumu-san. You are the first girl I ever met who keeps me company whenever I am feeling down. I want to hear my feelings today, just for you.” The crowd around them now squeals louder, it is louder than Ai and Ayumu.

“This is so awesome!” A Nijigasaki transfer student, Myon, shouts in unison, showing support with red and pink pen lights dancing with both hands.

“So cool, Nana-chan, Ayumu-chan.” Yu cheers on the couple, much to the couple’s embarrassment. First off, Ayumu is already with Yu while Nana is just acting up with Ayumu to avoid letting her split with Yu.

“Yu-chan!” Ayumu calls her out.

“Yu-san!” Nana copies Ayumu, everyone glances at Yu to their curiosity if she is okay seeing the two flirt in front of her.

“Sorry, I just…” Yu nervously answers and tries to reason out the dumb decision “I happened to like Nana too.” The girls near her tease her playfully, it gives Nana and Ayumu laughs at her.

“So uh… can we kiss one day outside school?” Nana whispers in Ayumu’s ear, the latter keeps her mouth shut and continues the activities. The two parts and business continues.

After Setsuna or Nana, Ayumu continues to receive more love confessions from three girls left. The last three girls are her fans, each give casual confessions and a piece of gerberas. She happily accepts their gifts and her turn is over in less than five minutes. 

“It’s Yu-chan’s turn now!” Emma says in unison, Ayumu is done with the confession act. Yu hops out of her seat and walks towards Ayumu.

“Okay!” Yu says to Emma, the childhood friends exchange high fives. Ayumu heads back to the confectionery counter of the booth which is where she is originally assigned to.

With Yu’s turn to exhibit the love confession enactment, she has about twelve girls she will be meeting to hear their romantic words. The first girl in line is indeed Kasumi Nakasu. In her hand is a koppepan with Yu’s favorites.

“Yu-senpai!” Kasumi sweetly calls her “Kasumin is here to celebrate your Valentine’s Day first with a confession from the cutest school idol in the world: Kasumin!”

“Woo! Kasumi-chan is so cute!” Yu compliments her, she is more than welcome to take what she is about to give.

“Here!” Kasumi gives the koppepan to her “My Koppepan is filled with your favorites because I love you!” Yu takes a bite of the tasty bread, Kasumi’s fingers crossed and Yu tastes the feeling of her handmade delicacy. It warms her heart to feel the effort Kasumi put for her.

“Thanks, Kasumi-chan.” Yu thanks her with a love confession “I love you too.” She gave Kasumi a long hug and the latter could not be happier than just to accept her for today. Just for today.

Yu’s lineup continues. Two girls came forward offering fanmade merch of her on top of their love confessions, it really gives her inspiration that she is more than just a school idol supporter. She hopes that she can have an official merch of herself around the smorgasbord of Nijigasaki merch. Next up after the two is Setsuna. Unlike Nana to Ayumu, Setsuna has enough time to switch her hairstyle and keep her clothes and apron. Most students do not notice any similarities between Setsuna and Nana so they thought Yu will be receiving a confession differently than Ayumu.

“Deja vu?” Yu asks Setsuna with her eyes looking away at her.

“Yeah.” Setsuna then confesses with open arms “I love you so much, Yu-san!” This makes her heart beat so suddenly. For such a power that Setsuna can give love to, Yu only smiles and accepts Setsuna’s lovely hug. The crowd squeals again at the same level when Nana did it to Ayumu. Of course, Ayumu decides to let out her jealousy by pouting at them.

After Setsuna, Shizuku is next in line and Yu is waiting for Venus to bless her love.

“Senpai, I shall read a short poem for my heart is for you.” Shizuku proposes in her Venus costume in front of Yu.

“Thanks, Shizuku-chan.” Yu looks forward to hearing her shortly “I’m interested to hear your poem.”

Long story short, Shizuku just slowly professes her love in the end. She researched much about the goddess for a few days and her poem seemed to impress some of the crowd. Up next is Ai Miyashita, of course, Ayumu already got her love confession. What does Ai think of Yu? It will be short but effective.

“Ai-chan, deja vu!” Yu downplays the moment as Ai repeats her cheer similar to Ayumu.

“Yuyu is my favorite Yuyu.” Ai cheers on Yu, her light stick for Yu is colored green-black gradient “You are my best supporter in the whole school. Ai loves Yuyu! And only Ai!” Unlike Ayumu, Yu is happy to hear Ai’s words.

“Thank you so much, Ai-chan.” Yu happily bawls and hugs her fellow second year “I love you!”

“You’re so cute, Yuyu.” Ai smiles and says “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

After Ai comes another second year, Lanzhu Zhong, the Club’s fearsome rival from the Association. Lanzhu, this time, prepares something expensive for Yu that she cannot take seriously. In her red signature parker, she takes out two tickets for a dragon boat ride at a nearby Sea Park and kneels in front of Yu, surprising most of the Club.

“Hello, Yu.” Lanzhu greets her with tickets in her hand and a bunch of flowers to sugar coat it “Would you like to take a dragon boat ride with me in the Sea Park this afternoon?” she then finishes it off with a wink, Yu gets confused why Lanzhu spent half of her allowance just to be impressed.

“That’s not how confessions work.” Yu says sensibly, she does not hate her for trying but she will accept her gifts either way “But I love this luxurious bouquet, Lanzhu.”

“Xie Xie.” Lanzhu thanks her, sticking her tongue out cutely as to annoy Kasumi, giving the first year an aggravated growl. (“Thank you.”)

With Lanzhu finishing the lineup of girls Yu knows of, the next few girls move forward and enact their love confession to her, notably that they are also her classmates from the Music Course. Each gives out different gifts to her.

After Yu’s turn is over, the next booth now takes center stage, finishing the School idol Club’s Confession Booth. Yu and Ayumu have their heads down and backs lowered out of exasperation and some of the members have varying reactions on how Yu and Ayumu differently take their confessions. Setsuna approaches her fellow second year members and cheers them up, backing up with Kasumi.

“The reception for our booth acted wild and started well.” Setsuna shared the news with them. Meanwhile, Kasumi looks up to the two and checks on their faces.

“At the cost of our self-esteem.” Ayumu embarrassingly says. Kasumi stands up and puts her senior to look at her face.

“It’s okay you two.” Kasumi optimistically says “The following days will be freely open to students and visitors. And, how did you feel about hearing their words?” The last question teases them.

“It was mostly sweet.” Ayumu briefly answers.

“Mostly passionate.” Yu then extends her answer with an open heart “It made my heart thrilled to hear some from the club.” Setsuna and Kasumi look at each other to confirm before looking back at them, they are fine for the day.

“Yu-san, can you help me out on the souvenir supply?” Setsuna asks her girlfriends out “Ayumu-san, help Kanata-san to bake or reheat cakes and muffins?”

“Sure.” Yu and Ayumu regain their confidence back, thankfully that the demonstration for the Confession Booth is over. Both of them felt awkward throughout the day after their experience of having to hear lovely words. The fair lasts until 17:00 JST where the five clubs manage to start up the Valentine’s Fair with such excitement from the visitors.

At sundown, Yu and Ayumu meet up at the bus terminal near Nijigasaki High School. The two may have different reception from receiving their confessions from their peers, particularly those on their club. The energy they spent from running the booth sure does keep them away.

“Ayumu, let’s spend Valentine’s Day.” Yu says her girlfriend, the latter turns to her.

“Sure, all of my love confessions from other students are done for the day.” Ayumu says. While waiting for their bus, she then asks curiously “Do you happen to have a few girls confessing their love to you?”

“If I tell you how many, you’d be jealous about my charisma.” Yu warns her, she is knowledgeable of her jealousy.

“No.” Ayumu answers, she is keeping her jealousy as soft as possible. “I happen to have 4 from the Club and Association.”

“I actually have 12 girls confessing their love to me.” Ayumu explains her side of the booth “In the end, I got obligatory chocolates from them, four pieces.” The bus they will be riding arrives and the two hop on.

“How many did you get?” Ayumu asks while the two look for their seats.

“I guess three pieces of obligation chocolates but that is to be expected.” Yu answers, they sit down on available seats as the bus leaves the terminal “From 12 confessions, who do you think made your heart throb today?”

“I guess Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu answers “From Setsuna-chan, Karin-san, Shioriko-chan, and Ai-chan, the club members seem to hold dear to me. Even my fans cheer on whoever I pair up with.”

“Kasumi-chan, Setsuna-chan, Shizuku-chan, Ai-chan, and Lanzhu-chan have confessed their love to me.” Yu adds her side of the booth.

“Both of us got Setsuna-chan and Ai-chan.” Ayumu says cheerfully “I think Setsuna-chan is becoming our important friend, don’t you think?”

“Yeah.” Yu assures her.

“Okay.” Ayumu replies back and notices the bus will be arriving near the Sea Park soon by two blocks away. 

Yu then shows the Sea Park tickets to Ayumu, much to the latter’s curiosity “Lanzhu gave me two tickets to a dragon boat ride. It’s almost Chinese New Year too. You wanna ride?”

“Sure.” Ayumu happily accepts and then asks “By the way, how did Lanzhu talk about it?” Yu thinks about what she and Lanzhu did earlier and flashes back an hour before meeting Ayumu again.

_ “Lanzhu, you’re too rich to give us two tickets.” Yu asked while trying to decline Lanzhu’s gift, the latter mischievously approaches her. _

_ “Come on, it’s not bribery.” Lanzhu tries to throw away her useless ticket “Besides, I have some extras for dear Mia-chan and Shioriko-chan.” _

_ “Are you sure?” Yu asks with her eyes patronizing her. _

_ “I’m not some rich lady who just gives it away and tricks someone to do the bidding.” Lanzhu assures her as she forcibly puts her tickets in Yu’s hands “Anyway, I hope you and Ayumu will do great at the Sea Park.” _

Accompanying Music: かわいいかな？

The Sea Park is filled with prosperous decorations, cultural ambience, and festive mood all around. The torii gate in front of them welcomes warmly. The cold air begins to warm up with heat around the settlement. While Yu and Ayumu are in their winter uniforms, they stroll around the amusement park and immersive into a festivity celebrated in the country of red.

“The Sea Park is majestic.” Ayumu awestruckingly says, the children and teens are even enjoying the view of the festivity in the ground and sea “This must be Chinese New Year, right?”

“Yep, I checked the calendar and I see why Lanzhu offered me tickets. Look!” Yu then points to a traffic of dragon boats. Those aren’t dragon boats they usually see in sports tournaments. The dragon boats are small enough for the family to even a couple size.

“The dragon boats looked fierce, sometimes awesome to look at.” Ayumu walks ahead of Yu, letting the latter catch up “Do you remember we row a boat together at a shallow lake?” The question made Yu wonder if they remembered. Of course, they remembered that past time as usual.

“Yep, we share an oar to row around the lake.” Yu recalls.

“Of course.” Ayumu confirms. However, arriving at the waiting line from the docks, it seems the dragon boat ride has not been opened yet. Yu then thinks of an idea.

“We should try out activities before riding.” Yu suggests the idea to Ayumu.

“Okay. We can try.” Ayumu follows her lead and the two walk around the Sea Park.

Filled with amusement and stores, Yu and Ayumu look up at a flea market run by a school idol from Y.G. International named Ranpha. The girl welcomes the couple and shows the clothes she is selling, her family also applauded them as they added Y.G. School Idols from a live show last month.

“Look! Ayumu!” Yu calls her, she finds a Qipao of her girlfriend’s liking as the design had a color scheme of pink and red and flowery patterns “Qipao for you?”

“So cute.” Ayumu compliments the clothes and she looks at another set of clothes that matches Yu’s color scheme but with a unique pattern “Also- this Qipao looks good on you.”

Yu excitedly gasps and checks the Qipao before asking Ranpha where the dressing room is. The school idol points to where it is and both of them try out the Qipao before checking it out. Since their winter school uniform is the only set of clothes they can switch, Ranpha permits the two to wear their clothes no problem. Ranpha also added a forecast that it will be a good winter night for them to wear it. The two wave goodbye to Ranpha and they move on to the next store. The second store they visit sells lanterns and makes it on the spot. Yu buys two lanterns for her and Ayumu to build later, she then turns to the shopkeeper.

“Cool design. The texture looks rugged yet beautiful” Yu compliments the lanter she is buying and then asks “Will it not burn itself up in the air?”

“It will not burn, we crafted lanterns for years.” The lantern shopkeeper confidently answers “In fact, we have printed instructions on how to make them and light it up in the air.” She points to her siblings instructing children and teenagers on making lanterns.

Yu and Ayumu join the workshop the shopkeeper offered and they pay the price for the lanterns, the workshop is for free since Chinese New Year overlaps with Valentine’s Day. While Ayumu queues in line for the dragon boat ride, Yu walks away for a while and Ayumu will hold their queue. Somewhere away from the docks, she then sees Lanzhu dancing ‘Queendom’ in front of her audience while Mia remixes the song, she then looks around to find Setsuna in a unique Qipao. Shioriko is also with her so she follows along. Shioriko is wearing a green hanfu Lanzhu bought and bows to her as if she is her senior.

“Yu-san.” Setsuna greets her with an attractive smile “Celebrating Chinese New Years with Ayumu-san?”

“Yeah, you’re dismissed early. Hello, Shioriko-chan.” Yu says, she then moves her eyes to see Setsuna dressed for the occasion, even keening on one unique feature she stands out amongst hers and Ayumu’s “And, Setsuna-chan, your Qipao looks cool, even one leg showing up.” Setsuna realizes that her leg is exposing in front of her, she fixes her own legs and hides the small cut in her lower part.

“Stop it, Yu-san!” Setsuna calls her out from seeing a unique feature from her Qipao, she starts to act like a tsundere towards her “My mom is going on a date with my dad so I have to look around and celebrate the tradition alone.”

“Come on, Setsuna-san.” Shioriko scoffs off her excuse “You only said it because you wanted to look out for them.”

“I wasn’t.” Setsuna defends, much to the fang girl’s amusement.

“Shioriko-chan, your hanfu looks good on you too.” Yu compliments her student council president, then asks “What are you doing there?”

“I am watching over Lanzhu and Mia performing Street Live to the fans of the event.” Shioriko says “I should find Kasumi-san and the others.” Shioriko leaves Setsuna and Yu alone as they make a private talk before splitting.

“How did the baking go?” Setsuna asks Yu. For context, earlier today, Yu is baking a red velvet cake for Ayumu on the spot. After baking the cake with Ayumu’s favorites, she shares the cake with her club members. However, Ayumu is busy with the booth’s souvenir selling so Yu decides to save a slice for her.

“Pretty good.” Yu answers and opens her sling bag, the bag already has a cake slice saved for her “I was carefully following Ayumu’s adjustments.”

“Good.” Setsuna gives a thumbs up to her “Give it to her when you two are on a dragon boat. I’ll be watching far away and see the lantern party.” With her approval, Yu carefully stores her cake and closes the sling bag. She wears it back and is about to leave Setsuna alone.

“See you later, Setsuna-chan.” Yu bids farewell, but she turns back to ask something “Are you not gonna ask her out?” Setsuna heard her question and she pauses for a second to think about it.

“I uh… I ask her out on the phone.” Setsuna says with a bashful sweat drop.

“You must be willing to talk her out.” Yu answers “We’re just keeping our bond together after all.”

“Yu-san.” Setsuna says her name again, Yu giggles in return “Anyway, I will still share Valentine’s Day with her tomorrow. For now, you two have fun. See you!” She then splits with Yu and walks towards Shioriko for another business tonight.

“Bye, Setsuna-chan.” Yu waves goodbye and return to the dock with dragon boats.

Once Yu returns to the line Ayumu is already two people away from the queue, they wait for their turn and they finally get their turn to ride on a dragon boat. Dragon Boat Rides have a maximum of thirty minutes per boat to ride on and this is long enough for them to see the beauty of the seaside from afar.

“Two tickets for Dragon Boat ride, please.” Yu gives the tickets to the manager, the manager accepts the trade and guides them to a dragon boat they can use and a pair of oars.

Accompanying Music: 始まれ！

Yu and Ayumu leave the docks on a boat and row away to the beautiful sight of the Rainbow Bridge and the Sea Park at night. They also saw five other boats rowing around the seaside. Since they left, the lanterns are already flying up in the sky at a level halfway to a skyscraper. They are impressed with the ambience brought by the lanterns and the two look at each other to see how they look with the lanterns glowing above them.

“By the way, Ayumu.” Yu then opens her sling bag and shows her the red velvet cake slice “Here.” Ayumu gasps and becomes ecstatic that Yu, herself, baked a cake for her. She also saved it in a delicate packaging made from their school crafts store.

“Red Velvet cake. You saved it for me.” Ayumu happily cheers and, even with just a slice, she is glad that Yu made an effort. Yu may be her prince.

“I baked it yesterday with Setsuna-chan and I tried baking it today to keep it fresh from the oven.” Yu explains “It’d be risky to just take a whole cake so a slice will do. It took me a while to buy your favorites.”

“It is my favorite cake.” Ayumu says and then explains her reflection for today “You know, I’ve been wanting to give you back for helping me out as a school idol. You helped me to open my heart to my fans. I guess the confession booth demonstration challenged us to show our love to everyone.” Yu’s heart warms up to hear Ayumu who is glad to ride with her, watch the activity, and be with her.

“Yeah, it was challenging.” Yu simply answers and references the lanterns they are watching “The lanterns reminded me of a fairytale movie we used to watch. The guy, who is a thief, takes a princess to the lantern festival on her birthday.”

“I know that movie.” Ayumu says to let Yu know what movie they watched from childhood “However, it is set in Chinese New Year. We are wearing special clothes for tonight.” reflecting on their newly-bought Qipao, she moves closer to Yu and sets an oar aside safely.

“I never frown at you. You know why?” Yu asks Ayumu, she has no clue and then answers “I always see you cute for whatever happens to us. I’ve been keeping you happy for all those years.” Ayumu giggles from her response.

“Next month, I will pay you back for what you gave me.” Ayumu promises to Yu “You’re already this cute for me too.” Yu giggles her back and she blushes at her words.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Ayumu. Also Happy Chinese New Year.” Yu says wholeheartedly to her, her girlfriend gives a brief kiss on her and she blinks to confirm her acceptance.

“You too.” Ayumu says and returns to glance at Yu, the two giggle cutely and they spend the rest of the time looking at the lanterns.

Onshore, Setsuna, Shioriko, Lanzhu, and Mia watch the couple exchange words and they see their lanterns fly from a distance. Much to their appreciation, Setsuna is happy to see the relationship bloom from their first date last year.

Back at their apartment, Yu and Ayumu are about to enter their apartments as they take glances at each other before drifting off for tomorrow.

“We still have four more days to host the booth.” Yu reminds Ayumu.

“You voted for it.” Ayumu bashfully says and challenges her “Prepare for upcoming love confessions.”

“WE voted for it, Ayumu.” Yu downplays the situation and highlights the names who voted for the booth “You, Shizuku-chan, and Karin-san.”

“Silly me.” Ayumu jokes and apologizes to Yu, she then opens her door to leave Yu alone “See you tomorrow.” Yu nods her back and she too opens her door back to her apartment. The two split up and rest up for tomorrow. 

In Ayumu’s apartment, she opens her red velvet cake slice Yu baked. She eats a chunk of the slice and tastes it. To the surprise of her taste buds, she found strawberries and vanilla mixed well in the cake and those are her favorites. With Setsuna’s guidance, Yu was able to bake on her own and Ayumu is very happy to hear her develop outside Music.

_ “Yu’s cake tasted so sweet. Thanks, Setsuna-chan.” _

Ayumu thinks and she opens her smartphone. She has one unread message from Setsuna, she checks it out and sees a love letter with the following sentence: “Your ribbons wrap around my heart. As a microphone that bears no protection or assurance, a ribbon that will wrap me can hold my confidence to sing out my love.”

Setsuna and Ayumu’s Chapter is next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now, Ayumu and Setsuna's chapter will finally upgrade from close friends to lovers inside the YuuPomuSetsu triangle.


	4. SetsuAyu's Duty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> February 15. Nana/Setsuna and Ayumu walk into the Student Council room to help out the Vice-President's duties while Shioriko is busy at the Association's booth. Prior to it, Setsuna sent a love letter to Ayumu last night and, while she is terrible at making one-liners, she was given help from Emma on this day on keeping up with Ayumu and Yu. Along the way, Setsuna knows how Ayumu and Yu keep their relationship together, and then... the revelation happened in front of the Vice-President. How will she react?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Vice-President, the girl who appeared with speaking role in Nijigasaki Episode 11, does not have a name and I decide to just use her as supporting character in this chapter. What happens if she knows Nana is Setsuna?

Accompanying Music: あつまれ!同好会

February 15, the day after Valentine’s Day, Tuesday commences the second day of the Valentine’s Fair. Yu is busy with the confession booth, and so are the other members, so Ayumu will have to take care of her studies.

“Your ribbons wrap around my heart.” Ayumu recalls the letter Setsuna wrote last night “As a microphone that bears no protection or assurance, a ribbon that will wrap me can hold my confidence to sing out my love.” as she is about to go to her classroom, she meets Nana in front of her and gives a weak smile, she is not baffled but rather uneasy.

“Ayumu-san.” Nana greets her formally “You're up early.”

“Nana-chan, what are you doing here in my classroom?” Ayumu asks, she drops her bag near her chair to lift some weight.

“Shioriko-san is dismissing her student council activities this afternoon so I walked in to ask if you can help me with Shioriko’s paperwork.” Nana answers to the extent to inviting Ayumu to help out in the student council room.

“Her club is gonna be busy with three fancy drinks. Not to mention, the faculty will be trying out delicacies from Lanzhu.” Ayumu explains, Nana hops to the conclusion.

“That is the idea.” Nana says “It may take long but I could use a helping hand.”

“I'll help you.” Ayumu says while she stretches her back from walking and carrying her bag “The confession booth will run as usual even without us, right?” The bell rings around the school and Nana leaves Ayumu’s classroom.

“I better go back to my classroom.” Nana says, Ayumu waves her hand to bid farewell, the school idol goes back to her classroom next door to Ayumu as classes begin.

Time passes slowly for Setsuna as, without her president council role, drifts slowly to studying for her future. While she is in class, she is thinking about the time she made contact with Ayumu. What started as strangers to acquaintances now become close friends after the events of SIF. It has been recalled to her mind a few times. The thought of seeing Ayumu grows unbearable.

“Ayumu-san…” Setsuna thinks while answering her test sheet “Your fist felt smooth the moment we helped each other, that moment we had time shopping and cooking.” Answering her test paper carefully, her instructor gave her hands on exam high grades, as expected of an honorable student of Nijigasaki.

Time passes and her class is over, it is morning break. Setsuna changes her disguise to her school idol self to help out her rivals in the Confession Booth. Currently, the volume of potential customers from this school to beyond are relatively moderate when compared to the first day. Right now, Setsuna is helping Emma and Kanata handle the confectionery section of the booth, the short girl then sees Ayumu and Yu taking care of a boy and girl of the same school, both are counseling them for a good relationship.

Accompanying Music: かわいいかな？

It takes her back to the time she helped Ayumu in setting up the guerilla live show at the time Yu was gone. She was Ayumu’s right-hand assistant managing the live show until that fateful day. Suddenly, she reflects that time that she secretly kissed Ayumu in her apartment and that accidental kiss during their practice onstage.

“Oh yeah.” Setsuna thinks again “We shared kisses. I figured why is she acting normally… Even after that day-” Seeing Yu and Ayumu makes her jealous, but nervously smiling that she is watching over them.

“Was Setsuna-chan’s freeform good?” Yu asks Ayumu, Setsuna overhears their conversation a little bit.

“I think of it as a nice attempt to make a metaphorical one-liner.” Ayumu answers her lover “I know Setsuna-chan will do better.” Both of them are glad to help a happy couple from their school, much to Setsuna’s anxiety growing from her heart.

“Ayumu-san…” Setsuna continues thinking over “I have to tell the truth today.” It was slowly blowing off her confidence. A confidence to tell the truth, it was about her love interest to Ayumu.

Someone else noticed Setsuna drifting off from her assigned role. Emma leans in front of her and waves at her eyes.

“Whatcha Doin’, Setsuna-chan?” Emma asks her junior.

“Oh hey, Emma-san.” Setsuna cuts off her daze thanks to the alps girl, she then asks “What are you doing?”

“You were staring at Yu-chan and Ayumu-chan so I thought I could snap off and get back to business.” Emma says without any worry intimidating her.

“Sorry, Emma-san…” Setsuna apologizes and time passes for a few minutes.

While serving at the confectionery counter, Kanata sees Haruka and Christina visiting the school grounds and approaching the confession booth. Kanata wakes up and walks to her sister and friend, giving Setsuna and Emma time to talk personally.

“Can I ask you something, Emma-san?” Setsuna asks her senior “Were you jealous of Karin-san holding Ayumu-san’s chin?” The foreigner hums to think about it, she then recollects what happened yesterday. Of course, her jealousy is not significant but it finds her annoying to see Karin flirting with other girls.

“Kinda.” Emma answers “Karin-chan didn’t do this to me yet when we hung out but I guess she wasn’t ready to let out her feelings to me.”

“She seems to be looking out for you.” Setsuna says, she crouches to get more reserved cupcakes and muffins reheated “I wish she learns how to use a map.”

“I know but I don't blame her.” Emma laughs at her humor, she then asks “Can I ask about something? Who do you have a crush on?” While she is asking, Setsuna puts the cupcakes and muffins in the oven toaster and turns to her.

“Ayumu-san.” Setsuna nervously answers with a light blush “The love confession I made yesterday wasn’t a joke. It’s not like I wanted her to break up with Yu-san or anything. Yu is an understandable girl and I respect that.”

“So you are falling under a polyamory relationship, don’t you?” Emma asks, then extends her interpretation of the relationship “We never had this kind of relationship before when I was in Switzerland. One day, my parents told me such a relationship can be a bit finicky. Questions like ‘What happens when it gets out of control?’ or ‘How will you remain friends if one of them loves the other than you?’ have been around for years.”

“I’m sorry if I made any fuss.” Setsuna apologizes if she has made Emma talk a lot, she did not want to overboard her with curiosity.

“It’s okay.” Emma answers “Anything to feel warm and fuzzy for my rivals. So… How long do you have a crush on her?”

“It only has been five months after the events of the School Idol Festival…” Setsuna says, she briefly describes her crush “When we first touched our fists, I found something natural inside Ayumu’s heart. It was her happiness and purity. Ayumu is like a girl I once knew when I was a child. Even though she struggles without Yu-san, I’m usually there for her. In return, she started to like me as if her thoughts never faltered to forgive herself from her guilt. We expressed our passion to become school idols but Yu-san wanted to support us instead of becoming one, it is natural that we became rivals but- I wanted to be more than just friends and rivals. I want to keep her and Yu-san happy and also to tell the truth one day.” Hearing a paragraph of her bottled feelings for another second year, Emma seems to be interested in where she, Ayumu, and Yu will move forward. Emma then remembers the live show they did weeks ago and Yu was crying at the end of A・ZU・NA’s act.

“Was the stage play act you two did real?” Emma asks with her hand stroking Setsuna’s raven hair “Did you two kissed?”

“It was- It was real.” Setsuna quietly says “For a second I thought I could feel her lips again and I was in a dream.” Emma giggles in return, she is not naive of knowing such a homosexual relationship.

“Talking feelings is the way to let go of your restraint, but wouldn’t it be preferable to take action than speaking?” Emma gives advice that would make her words become actions. Setsuna raises her eyes and never thinks why she keeps being stunned at Ayumu’s advances.

“Actions speak louder than words.” Setsuna mutters as she is just doing nothing when she speaks with Emma. While it improves her confidence to speak, she still lacks confidence in acting.

When lunchtime hits, the five clubs holding the booths are on break. Yu, Setsuna, Ayumu, and Ai are on the same table while the other years are on separate tables. Ai treats them as her best friends, adding the food that her grandma cooked. Freshly picked vegetables and tasty dressing makes a diet that Ai can eat every lunch with less guilt. Ayumu, Yu, and Setsuna have all been feeling about love in the air. To lessen the after effect, they invited Ai to their table and their time was brought back to a slice-of-life that they missed.

The conversation between her same-year rivals was smooth sailing, accounting to the fact that Ai keeps teasing Yu and Ayumu with nicknames. Her favorite part is that Ai actually made some veggies shaped about their representing animal. Yu likes lopped-ear rabbits because of her twintails looking like droopy ears so her shapes are the easiest to make, same goes for Ayumu that she likes bunnies and made a variation from Yu’s animal. Lastly for Setsuna, she represents a panda and Ai would have thought of making a panda but the heads are often similar to other bear species. Quite an enjoyment to chill from Valentine’s Fair.

The team comments on the first half of the day and reports the consumption of confectionery since the opening of the second day. Emma and Kanata notice that their supply for cakes, cupcakes, and muffins will not last until the third day, they will have to get Karin later to buy some ingredients for them. Kasumi, Rina, and Shizuku handled the counseling and confession parts, over fourteen pairs visited their parts and made wishes, advice, and confessions for the first half, only three pairs are not satisfied with their love confession and decide to reject mildly. Out of the ten, Shizuku is the spotlight girl among the rest because of her chosen costume for the second day being Juliet from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. With time passing by close to afternoon, Setsuna checks her phone and she has ten minutes before the afternoon session begins.

“It’s almost time.” Setsuna says in unison, the second year team stands up to get back to business as she turns to Emma “Emma-san, I should look over Ayumu-san. Help out Yu-san whenever possible.”

“Roger that.” Emma salutes her de facto leader, Yu and Ai leave Ayumu and Setsuna alone as they head back to their posts.

“Shall we go?” Ayumu asks and Setsuna accepts. The two leave the club building and walk to the main building in less than ten minutes later.

Accompanying Music: サガシモノ

At the door before the Student Council room, Setsuna and Ayumu approach the door and enter the room. For this half, Setsuna switches herself to Nana to avoid getting caught by the watchdogs. Yes, while the student council’s watchdog twins are laxing steps on School Idol Club, Lanzhu decides to make some fun and catch Setsuna every time she tries to sneak into the room.

”Whew… It’s been a long time since the room looks empty and quiet.” Nana looks around the room until she sees the familiar vice-president of the student council “Except the Vice-President. Hello!”

“Hello, Nana-chan, Ayumu-chan.” The Vice-President greets her fellow member and her friend Ayumu.

“It seems vast without the student council members.” Nana expresses her liberation, then asks “Did Shioriko-chan leave a bucket list?”

“It’s at the table.” The Vice-President points at the table with a formally-placed letter facing the chair. “Lots of incoming freshmen have been enrolling in this school since the creation of the School Idol Club and School Idol Association. Nana-chan, would you like to help out the School Idol Club’s equipment sometime?” Ayumu walks to Shioriko’s chair to get the letter while the Vice-President talks to Nana. She has been interested to meet Setsuna since Yu asked who is her favorite school idol. She wanted Nana to meet Setsuna one day, much to her unbeknownst is that Setsuna and Nana are one person.

“Sure, we can.” Nana happily accepts “We need Shioriko-san to convince us first before letting you.”

“Thank you.” the Vice-President then shows a video of ‘DIVE!’ Live Performance at Shibuya, this startles Nana though “Say, Setsuna-chan performed DIVE! and I was blown away to see those effects. Did you see it?” Nana is slowly sweating from her gleaming look, growing weary to keep her guard open. Nana breathes and forms out a one-liner she can use to express herself.

“Uh huh… Sure.” Nana says straightly, then says the one-liner “She is the coolest second year school idol I’ve ever seen.” Setsuna knows it is too generic to compliment herself but she cannot risk exposing her true identity.

While the two are talking, Ayumu sees Shioriko’s picture featuring them while trying out family-made special delicacies. She remembered she came from a traditional, strict household. Though strict, she knows the Nakagawa family also held the same rules as the Mifune family. It was also the time she and Yu visited Shioriko and Kaoruko to discuss plans for the next School Idol Festival. Kaoruko reveals the next SIF to take place in March, and it will be next month.

“Shioriko took a picture of me when I was in her house not so long ago.” Ayumu narrates herself, she then opens the letter and checks that they only have three things to do.

“I feel bad for putting her into student council fatigue.” Setsuna pities her junior “I really know how it feels to take five hours of work in a place like this.”

With the three in set, they start organizing the student council room. The first task on the list is to file incoming freshmen in Nijigasaki. To give a background check behind the.paperwork, those students came from various parts of Japan, not just Tokyo, not just Numazu, but also in Tohoku, Kyuushu, and Hokkaido regions. The three file up the application forms appropriately from over five hundred incoming freshmen in a span of forty minutes, each from partially completed, waitlisted, or completed. After filling up application forms, none of the incoming freshmen have incomplete requirements so they are fortunate enough to fulfill “98% of Nijigasaki High’s successful applicants” promise. While moving to the next task, Setsuna and the Vice-President move on to sorting academic resources which are placed in shelves protected with glass doors. Opening the shelves, the two look up records, memorabilia, and statistics around the students since the inception of the school. The Vice-President notices the memories left from previous students, most of them her seniors. Setsuna and Ayumu, on the other hand, are fascinated to see the school develop from a private institution fit for the rich to a private school that is open for more classes. It is not about classes, but rather the passion and talent. Inspired by history, Nana asked Ayumu a question.

Accompanying Music: 届かぬ想い

“Ayumu-san, before you two studty here, how did you two enroll?”

Ayumu hears Nana and thinks a bit when she recalls the time they got their enrollment to Nijigasaki High. Her childhood memories with Yu are usually happy, funny, and sometimes romantic. Although, most of her struggles came from the hard moments where she cannot treasure and remember it all the time. Unfortunately, one of those hard moments is her and Yu accepting a share of their scholarship to Nijigasaki High. It was painful to recall but she may have to think bravely.

“We took a share of our scholarship to Nijigasaki High.” Ayumu finally answers “Our parents have been longtime friends. Yu and I forgot who offered the scholarship but… We were at first scared to know the truth and we overcame our fear of uncertainty and accepted where the road will take us.” Her heart feels uncomfortable recalling the memory because it traumatizes her for a significant loss. Since she is talking with Nana, she tries to calm down from the pain and naturally smiles at her.

“What were you when you were younger?” Nana asks again.

“I was a caring girl who cared so much for Yu and Sei-chan.” Ayumu answers.

“Sei-chan?” Nana tries to recall who she is, but her memory is also a loss “That’s a name I haven’t heard of before. What do you think of Sei-chan?”

While the two talk, they are checking out resources that may need to dust off. The Vice-President sorts the academic materials while the two look up on resources that may need to resupply for incoming freshmen.

“Sei-chan was the girl Yu-chan and I spent time with in the first years of grade school. Sei likes our interests and she was a loner before we played a game of tag. On that fateful day in first grade, we shared what we love together, we depended on each other to help out people who have a dream.”

“Sei sounds like a good friend. Was she interested in things both of you didn’t?”

“Anime and Manga. Of course, Yu and I followed her interest too and we made a promise together. When we heard Yuigaoka is about to close down, we made that promise to become school idols. Their performance is what started our unbreakable bond.”

“And then?”

“That’s it.” Ayumu answers to make Nana pause “We were best friends forever until… an accident broke us apart. I uh… hurt Sei-chan so bad. Her mother took her away from us starting third grade and we did not forget the accident ever since.” Nana frowns from the moment she hears the accident, it was not her fault when it happened but she sympathizes wholeheartedly.

“I pity the day you three split.” Nana sympathizes with Ayumu, condolences on their separation “I was a loner when I was a young girl playing in the grassfields. They called me the otaku superhero and I laughed it off happily because that's who I am. In reality, no one shared my interests until middle school. For Yu-san, did she help you to become who you were before we met?”

“Yu share our happiness and pain. We were never separable until you came along.” Ayumu continues “You are the first school idol that we ever met in a long time. You and Yu-san also helped me to find a dream where I cannot just depend on Yu anymore. My tantrum became the last straw that I had with her and I never forgive myself for making her feel bad.”

“In the end, you still hold hands with her after you apologized to her?” Nana then asks in a teasing manner and Ayumu now turns to Nana seriously.

“Come on, Nana-chan.” Ayumu annoyingly calls out topping off with a pout, letting Nana laugh.

“I kid you.” Nana laughs like it was a correct reaction to snap Ayumu out of depression “I like how childhood friends still stick together until today.”

“That is why you love both of us, don’t you?” Ayumu asks, Nana agrees with a nod. The two girls were able to tell a short story of Yu and herself.

As they are done fixing up the shelves, the Vice-President notices that the yearbooks are at the top shelf. She looks at the two and asks for help.

“There’s a resource I have to check: The Yearbooks.” The Vice-President says, pointing to the top of the shelf “They’re at the top of the shelf.” It is inconvenient for the yearbooks to be placed there, probably it was like archival treasures. Nana is about to raise her hand but Ayumu takes the first bid.

“I’ll get it.” Ayumu volunteers for the Vice-President and the latter gets the ladder.

It takes the Vice-President five minutes to get the ladder from the janitor’s room. Nana is concerned about the resources they have given that the school has lived long before they were born. Ayumu, being taller than her, is confident to help out anyone and takes the bait. When the Vice-President returns with a stack of expandable ladder on both hands, Nana positions the stairs to where she pointed and Ayumu slowly climbs up to get the yearbooks they need to dust off. Due to the stairs angled close to a straight line, Nana slowly stares at her legs. Because of the school uniform, Nana barely peeks at a rose pink cotton fabric between Ayumu’s legs.

“Ayumu-san…” Nana bashfully whispers “I can see it.” She backs away so as to not tick Ayumu off when she finds out.

“Geez…” Ayumu playfully says while climbing half way, she covers her skirt barely to give time for Nana to strafe back inches away.

When Ayumu reaches the top of the self, she opens the glass window and finds ten books horizontally placed and organized.

“Which years am I gonna pick up?” Ayumu asks the Vice-President.

“About three years before your year.” The Vice-President answers, the tall girl nods and reaches for the yearbooks in question.

Since it is sorted by oldest to newest, it is not hard for Ayumu. She proceeds to hold on to one book on one arm while the other arm reaches for the other two. She is slowly keeping her adrenaline under control with no hands to hold on. By the time her hand catches the next yearbook, her eyebrows raise and deposit the next yearbook on her arm. Nana and the Vice-President are gripping for her determination, on account of not just being a school idol, but also a fit girl not on an athlete’s level. Well, she is not an athlete per se, she keeps her body to fit on a school idol level. Nana gulps by the time she is reaching for the third and last yearbook. Using her thoughts from the previous yearbook, she manages to reach for the last yearbook and deposit into her arm. She holds on the railing to keep her steady and exhales, relieving from the tension to put in. She hums to notify her accomplishment and lowers down the ladder. However, the Vice-President has no recollection of the ladder she picked up is sturdy and Nana notices the next step Ayumu is about to step down is not fastened. Nana then reacts cautiously.

“Look out!” Nana shouts as Ayumu carelessly puts her other foot down to a worn out step.

The next step carries a big surprise for Ayumu. The girl suddenly drops her weight and loses balance, on account that she is holding books on one arm and the other foot steadily holds, Ayumu falls off the stairs as Nana gracefully catches her. Ayumu topples on top of Nana that pushes the catcher down to the ground. It softens her injury but it exchanges the latter to hit her head backwards and have her body slammed by her. Ayumu was wincing this whole time when she slipped off the ladder.

Accompanying Music:  胸をよぎる不安

“My head...” Nana mutters behind Ayumu’s neck, her partner rolls on her right and sees her partially squished from her partner’s weight, her stomach taking most of the infliction from her partner’s butt.

“Nana-chan, I’m sorry!” Ayumu apologizes and tries to fix her up.

“It’s okay.” Nana takes her hand but… she notices her lenses in front of her are gone “Wait… My glasses!” She and Ayumu look around in panic and see the glasses are behind her.

“It’s broken…” Nana and Ayumu say in worriness that the lenses cracked from impact. What is worse is that Nana inadvertently looks in front of the Vice-President and her life is over. Setsuna’s disguise as Nana Nakagawa is exposed in front of the Vice-President.

“Wait! You’re Setsuna-chan?!” The Vice-President shockingly says loud and clear “And you’re cheating on Yu-chan by hooking up with Ayumu-chan.”

“It’s not what it looks like!” Nana exclaims, forcing Ayumu to get up and let her fix herself from the fall.

The three take a brief moment to see and realize. Nana realizes her glasses fall off when Ayumu slipped from the ladder and slams her down. She suffered concussion from her ribs and a painstaking hit in the back of her skull but it is just a minor problem. The major problem is that her glasses are destroyed and her disguise is exposed in front of the Vice-President.

Accompanying Music: How…

“My cover’s blown.” Setsuna then apologizes while removing her braids “I apologize if I take away my disguise and sneak in.” After saying, she reveals her disguise to the Vice-President.

The Vice-President gasps as Setsuna’s hair flows down to her waist. She has never seen a girl more beautiful than her. Of course, she knows the watchdog twins also wear glasses and looked beautiful without it. Other than that, she finally met her dream school idol working at the Student Council room.

“It’s no problem, Setsuna-chan.” She forgives Sestuna and pulls out her autograph board “Can you sign an autograph for me? Even this board will do.” She goes fangirling on Setsuna and the latter did not mind to accept her wish, she is her fan after all.

“Don’t mind if I do.” Setsuna answers confidently, signing her autograph, and Ayumu follows along with another board. The Vice-President gets two signatures from the school idols.

“I will treasure it in my room.” She gladly embraces her dream gift, she later asks Setsuna “How did your studies go?” Setsuna raises her eyebrows and avoids her for a bit. Ayumu looks at her and budges Setsuna by the shoulder.

“Okay… My studies are A-Ok.” Setsuna answers with assurance to the Vice-President, then asks “Were you bothered that I blew my cover?”

“I was pleasantly surprised but not negatively surprised.” The Vice-President says happily, then confesses how she knew Nana was Setsuna “I kinda knew your voice seems familiar. Your singing voice and talking voice are all the same for me. If Shioriko knew you were also Nana in the first place, the watchdogs and other student council members would have caught you by the bull’s horn.”

“Shioriko knew me that I was both ‘Nana’ and ‘Setsuna’ before you did.” Setsuna says with her grin and half-closed eyes to patronize her “I am Nana Nakagawa after all.”

“Do you mean ‘Setsuna Yuuki’?” The Vice-President asks if Setsuna is Nana’s real name. Of course, she is incorrect.

“Nana is my real name.” Setsuna confirms to the Vice-President, much to Ayumu’s delight that she is being entertained to see Setsuna confronting her number one fan.

The three settle the incident. Setsuna and Ayumu are glad that the Vice-President did not whine when Setsuna revealed herself. The Vice-President is not that kind of a girl who just tells the truth in front of the school and gossip oftenly. She has her morals similar to Setsuna and truly respects her ego. Once the filing of incoming freshmen, sorting of academic resources, and double checking of resources are done, the three finish at fifteen in the afternoon. The Vice-President offers to put Setsuna’s braids too to bring back her disguise. She keeps a secret for the two and parts ways, leaving Ayumu and Setsuna to head back to the club building downstairs. Of course, Setsuna has to carry her ice pack placed above her head to relieve the compress. Upon returning, Kasumi lets a shocking gasp and the other members look at them.

“Eh?! You got hit in the head.” Kasumi says with a shocking look “I guess my cupcake recipe worked to make Ayumu-senpai gain some weight but I didn’t expect to have Setsuna-senpai fall victim to it.” when Kasumi slips out how it came into an incident, Setsuna gets pissed off why Ayumu’s weight gained for some reason to cause a slightly damaging recourse.

“I did not hurt badly, Kasumi-san.” Setsuna answers her junior with a scary glare, intimidating the junior and quickly apologizes.

“Sorry, senpai…” Kasumi apologizes to her seniors, giving a head rub from Shizuku and Yu.

“It’s a good thing you two did not suffer anything significant.” Yu says in relief, then asks from what she recalled “Were you two able to do what Shioriko-chan wrote?”

“Yes, yes we did.” Ayumu answers.

With the late afternoon ending the booth, it is time for all clubs to close the booths and call it a day. Ayumu, Rina, Setsuna, and Karin are dismissed first to take care of other things, the rest are cleaning up the decks.

At sunset, the front yard of the school gleaming with dusk colors, Setsuna and Ayumu are walking away from the activity building. The second day of Valentine’s Fair just wrapped up and the reception is very good compared to the first day. Their confession booth, in terms of popularity, is beaten this time by the Association’s Culinary Booth. Nonetheless, the event did well even after Valentine’s Day. When Ayumu and Setsuna walk into a familiar bridge away from their school, Setsuna is walking slower than she should be, prompting Ayumu to turn back and see Setsuna.

“What’s wrong Setsuna-chan?” Ayumu asks her friend, she later stands and pauses “Is the cold air catching your throat?”

“No…” Setsuna looks up and her blush grows visible to Ayumu “The time I did something to you has been lingering me for a long time. The feeling of cheating someone’s heart by touching an important part of her and begin riding the path to a triangle she never expected.”

“Setsuna-chan, I kinda understood.” Ayumu says, she knows that moment when she was asleep and Setsuna kissed her “We’ve been through this the whole month and you are worrying about what happened to us if we recall this memory.”

“It’s not just a moment, it is- It is a mistake I should have not done in the first place.” Setsuna said before confessing the dirty truth “I watched you two getting laid on Christmas Eve.” That dirty truth makes Ayumu gasp and she remembers that time with Yu in her girlfriend’s apartment on Christmas Eve. Her mind could not believe how Setsuna knew that moment. She first thought that it was Rina probing around their apartments but she digresses it because Rina would never do that at her age. She fixes her mind and resumes where they left off.

“You were?” Ayumu asks.

“I never thought you two deserved well than I do.” Setsuna says with her eyes not looking directly at Ayumu “I- I wanted to tell the truth before Yu-san does but I cannot betray you if I tell you my side of the story.”

“Setsuna-chan, you taught each other to see through the end.” Ayumu recalls, then asks with worry “Are you distancing each other again?”

“No.” Setsuna answers with realization, she defends “I wanted to get us closer. All while you deserve happiness to Yu-san, even if it costs me restraint.” Approaching to her, she holds both of her partner’s hands and it is unnerving.

“Hold on, let me go.” Ayumu says “Tell me what you’re hiding. I’m open to hear about it.”

Doing as Ayumu says, Setsuna pulls her something from her bag and her partner notices a familiar box she is about to give.

Accompanying Music: 「大好き!!!」

“Ayumu-san, I love you!” Setsuna shouts out her love and offers the handmade chocolate she made with two hands and bowing “Happy Valentine's Day.”

“Setsuna-chan, it’s your handmade chocolate.” Ayumu says and takes her chocolate box from Setsuna’s hands, she recognizes the shape of the chocolates. The chocolates are similar to Yu’s but Setsuna packed it up in a special red heart box while Yu packed it in bkack with green ribbons.

“It tasted good with natural cocoa, strawberry, and vanilla.” Ayumu says with sparkling eyes and pleasing tone “Yu and you made the same Valentine's food all for me. I couldn’t thank more than to accept it.”

“I uh…” Setsuna flusters and takes out her bouquet of flowers and plushie, the same items actually came from her bag “I wish I could give you more but… Here!” She gives it to Ayumu, much to her partner’s delight.

“Flowers and a plushie.” Ayumu says “You two saved the best for last.”

“I paid most of it.” Setsuna explains with nervousness creeping her “Yu was on a date with you at the Sea Park, so I instead made a way to give you gifts equal to Yu’s expenses.”

“You’re so cute, Setsuna-chan” Ayumu teases her lover “We have been rivals, but I consider you as my girlfriend- Maybe, more than that… We are lovers, right?” With her mouth whispering to Setsuna’s ear, she backs away for her lover to respond, and respond she did.

“Will you go on a date with me?” Setsuna asks out loud “It can be this month, I can wait for you.” The way she said made Ayumu giggle, finding out her sweet side.

“Okay, Setsuna-chan.” Ayumu accepts her invitation “Yu is going on a date with me this Saturday so do you want to go with me next Saturday?”

“Okay.” Setsuna gets her confidence back and points at Ayumu as if she is like an actual rival “I shall wait for you, Ayumu-san.”

“Cut with the formal manners.” Ayumu waves her hands, letting Setsuna to not go overboard with their time. She then invites her to the Chinese restaurant “Let’s go to my workplace. Couples discount ends tomorrow night.” Hearing those words, Setsuna walks and takes Ayumu’s hand, she wordlessly accepts and continues walking to the other end of the bridge.

Meanwhile, far away from the bridge, Emma is watching them in the distance with her sling bag clutching with her own hands. There is no doubt everyone will not see a secret relationship long forbidden to exhibit at school.

“You’ve opened your feelings.” Emma whispers “I hope Yu-chan isn’t jealous of them.” Behind her, Yu is meters away from her and her footsteps are barely audible to Emma’s ears.

“Emma-san?” Yu calls the senior and she gasps to look at where she is.

“Yu-chan.” Emma says her name in a surprising manner, she then forgets that she was watching the scene this whole time “Wait? Did you hear what I said?” Yu wonders what she asks and turns, only for her to see her girlfriend and Setsuna kissing briefly before they are talking as they walk to the other side of the bridge.

“Yeah.” Yu answers “I am aware Setsuna-chan wanted to become unconditional friends.”

“I see.” Emma says with a sweat on her forehead. Yu walks ahead of her and the foreigner follows her steadfastly…

“Sometimes, I wonder about myself.” Yu asks her age-old question “Does Ayumu prefer me or Setsuna-chan?”

“Do you think they'll be okay?” Emma asks.

“I know Ayumu sees her as a supportive idol.” Yu explains “Her enthusiasm is just the same as me and I couldn't be her because I didn't want to become a school idol. We share what we love about Ayumu, she likes both of us in return.” The whole explanation has Emma finally making sense as to why she saw Setsuna fawning over Ayumu secretly and she has been wondering why Ai is looking up to the three.

“Ai-chan is wondering if you, Ayumu-chan, and Setsuna-chan are destined to meet at this very school.” Emma recalls about Ai wondering about her, Ayumu, and Setsuna’s chemistry. As the two watch curiously, she then says with a worrying tone “Since Karin-chan, Kanata-chan, and I will be graduating soon, do you have a favorite time where you and Ayumu treasured?” Hearing that, Yu gets Emma’s attention and she sets it straight.

“I think it is the time where we share our passion together with Sei-chan.” Yu answers Emma, she holds her wrist to take her somewhere private to not be seen with Ayumu and Setsuna, the latter then realizes she has not heard of a name before.

“Sei-chan?” Emma asks Yu who she is. Yu begins to tell her story with Ayumu and Sei.

_ “Sei-chan is our third childhood friend.” _

To Be Continued…


	5. Epilogue - Sei-chan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue. Yu tells her childhood memory with Ayumu and Sei to Emma. **This Chapter also ends the Ayumu and Setsuna Arc.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Epilogue will bring in an alternate reference from SIFAS Nijigasaki Concurrent Story Episode 1.

**On the same day, a long time ago…**

In the Sea Park, Takasaki and Uehara parents are visiting the Valentine’s Fair near the seaside of Odaiba. The two are hosting their family business. The families visit the fair as Yu and Ayumu are looking for Sei. The familiar dock is found where Sei is wandering around an unmanned boat around two other docked boats. The girls jog to her and they stop to where the gap separates them.

“Sei-chan!” Ayumu and Yu called their third childhood friend, she turned to see them. Sei had been happy to see them since they met in the greenhouse.

“Yu-san, Ayumu-san.” Sei greeted the two and she had two small boxes of chocolate for them “Hello there. Happy Valentine’s Day!” Carelessly, she throws those boxes to Ayumu and Yu, both of their hands preparing to catch the boxes.

“Happy Valentine’s Day!” Ayumu exclaimed with a smile, Sei then hopped out of the boat. The good thing is that the gap is only half a meter in between so Sei has less problem to take a risk.

“I saw my parents meet up with Mommy Takasaki and Daddy Takasaki.” Sei said “My mom bought your album and they love the songs.”

“Thanks, Sei-chan.” Yu thanked Sei bashfully, she was glad her parents are her parent’s fans, at least to an extent of interest.

“What are you doing here at the Sea Park?” Ayumu asked.

“Nn… I am waiting for school idol performances on stage. It will begin in a few minutes.” Sei answered Ayumu’s question.

“School Idol?” Yu asked since she had no idea of what it is. “Ayumu-chan, do you know what it is?” Much to her unbeknownst, Sei grinned at the fact that Yu is not familiar with school idols.

“Why are you asking her if she does not know too?” Sei playfully asked and Ayumu nervously scratched her hair bun.

“I am a bit familiar but I only saw them in commercials.” Ayumu answered half-truthly, of course she also had little knowledge of school idols “Sorry, Yu-chan…”

“You two must be close.” Sei complimented her new friends, she then pointed at a nearby food stall “Anyway, I should get some snacks before we go to the plaza.”

“Okay.” Yu copied that and she held Ayumu to walk away. “Ayumu-chan, let’s get our parents to go there.”

“Sure.” Ayumu agreed.

“I’ll see you there.” Sei bid farewell and she went to the food stalls to buy food for them. She knew their favorites so she bought what they liked and later met up at the plaza.

At the plaza, lots of people were gathering and Sei was among the back row to watch performers in the center. She then spotted her friends and their parents. Sei is gleaming with excited eyes, she is happily meeting with her favorite musicians.

“Sorry for waiting.” Yu said as the parents of Uehara and Takasaki meet up with Sei.

“Not to worry, Yu-san.” Sei said, she then greeted their parents “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Takasaki. Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Uehara.”

The rest of the midday was filled with fun, specifically the three saw street performers in the plaza. Of course, Ayumu was surprised by the performer’s tricks, her cotton candy got stuck into her hair. It was an accident, letting Ayumu cry for help, so Yu tried to wipe it off with a wet handkerchief, but Yu forgot to wring it and ended up splashing on Ayumu’s clothes. The Uehara parents took notice of it and Sei took a picture of Ayumu behind Yu’s back, much to the latter’s horror. They were lucky that a nearby comfort room is available near the plaza. Sei was called a prankster by her peers but she has a good heart that she will fix everything that she can be passionate about.

By the time Ayumu and her parents, Yu and Sei are looking at Ayumu’s new clothes. It already fitted her style but they thought they could compliment her another time. Ayumu would never take ‘No.’ for an answer so she just smiled it off. By the time the street performers are done, the next performer is a group of school idols, notably the Yuigaoka School Idol Club. They are a team of nine idols, each fulfilling a dream to entertain people around the country.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are from Yuigaoka School Idol Club.” Leader of the school idol club starts her speech before performing their song “And today, we want to celebrate Valentine’s Day for your loved ones, family, friends, and even couples alike. We hope that everyone will love our debut song singing more than once for all of you.”

“Look!” Sei exclaimed beside Yu and Ayumu “It’s Yuigaoka School Idol Club.”

“It is?” Ayumu asked, she had to search up on her parents’ computer to know about them.

“Yeah.” Sei explained about the group “I read their interviews back in the day, They have a passion for sharing their future with their fans. Unfortunately, their school will be closing in a few months.” hearing such news made Yu and Ayumu turn at her.

“What? How?” Yu asked.

“School Funding.” Sei said, giving a brief backstory behind Yuigaoka’s closure “If you recall, Yuigaoka did not have enough freshmen to maintain the school and it was because of how culture changes within a decade. It didn’t have enough time to adapt modern values and integrate it to keep the school.”

“Yuigaoka has traditional and modern clubs recently, how come it is still decided to close the school?” Yu asked for a reason the club is disbanding.

“The chairwoman failed to embrace the present and made the decision to close the school.” Sei answered “Did you see their tears?” Hidden in plain sight, the leader alongside the eight other members hum to the theme of their first song. All while their tears slowly fall.

“I see. How sad…” Ayumu said with pity, even Yu is touched the moment Yuigaoka’s announcement turns into sad news. Once Yuigaoka started their first song of their last performance, Ayumu, Yu, and Sei watched the live performance to their heart’s content. It only took Sei a minute to continue her talk with them.

“You know, I have been thinking…” Sei then devised what could be their plan for tomorrow “If Yuigaoka did not save their school from closure, we can start sharing our passion for school idols.”

“Yu-chan, do you know what a school idol is after showing it to you?”

Sei asked a question of life to Yu. The latter had been listening to the group’s speech as they transitioned to performing their song. When Yu looked around, she can see people cheering for Yuigaoka and their calls are music to hear that their support motivates them to make their dream come true.

“I may not find the answer right away but they are entertaining and fun to meet and greet one day.” Yu said, her hand wandered around to focus on the group “I wish I can be inspired by them to let them know that I have a dream.”

“What if we can start one together?” Sei said a ‘What if’ “Ayumu-san and I- And we can help you find your dream with us.”

“You do?” Yu asked.

“Yeah, you can be our idol manager.” Sei proudly announced “You can tell us what to do and we’ll lead the way.” Ayumu giggled nervously and had to respond to Sei.

“Us?” Ayumu asked “Sei-chan, I don’t know… You’re more passionate about school idols than I do.” Sei then remembered the time she watched a stage play with her wearing a rabbit onesie.

“Your stage play role as a bunny inspired me to become an outgoing student leader of our school.” Sei said “In return, I want to realize your dream. What do you say?” It took Ayumu a few seconds to think of and make the decision, Sei’s passion let her think beyond the ordinary.

“Yu-chan. If it’s okay with you, I want to be a school idol too.” Ayumu said truthfully after Sei’s guidance. Yu nodded in response and held her hand.

“I’m rooting for you, Ayumu-chan.” Yu said with her determination “You too, Sei-chan. We can start our own school idol club, one day.”

“Yu-san, Ayumu-san.” Sei said with passion “I love both of you and I cannot stop telling you.”

“Yu-chan, Sei-chan.” Ayumu held hands of Yu and Sei, forming a triangle together “Let’s be school idols. Together.” Their dream of becoming school idols begin as they listen to Yuigaoka’s final performance. Their promise will be one day their destiny.

**Present Day…**

“And this is how Ayumu, Sei-chan, and I share an unbreakable bond. We began our interest to support school idols. Eventually, Ayumu became a school idol while Sei abandoned our passion for academic studies.” Yu finishes her story of her, Ayumu, and Sei to Emma. To note, Yu and Emma are on a dinner date.

Yu took Emma to the latter’s favorite place in Odaiba: Takoyaki Museum. Emma is too busy eating pieces of takoyaki in front of Yu but she understands clearly while savoring the sauce, vegetables, and octopus lingering in her taste buds. As she swallows her serving down her throat, she drinks sparkling water briefly and clears her throat.

After eating at the museum, the two leave the building and Emma stays at the bus terminal to wait for Karin. Yu stays beside her to keep her company.

“So Sei-chan is just like Setsuna-chan?” Emma asks, she almost figures who Sei is but she is met with Yu looking confused as to how Emma thought Sei is like Setsuna.

“Huh?” Yu answers, she has little memory of the girl “I have no idea, but she acted like her when she first met. She is a balance of me and Ayumu.” She adds more about her while the foreigner pulls her slightly by her hip. Yu felt her voluptuous body making contact and she felt her warmth linking her and counteracting the cold breeze.

“Yu-chan?” Emma sweetly compliments before proceeding to hug her “Your body is a bit cold so I have to hug you up.” Sweet ‘ol Emma hugs Yu directly, the partner’s head resting on between her shoulder and neck. Yu smiles because it is expected of her Emmama.

“Emma-chan, you’re so warm…” Yu peacefully says, Emma releases her from her wrap and looks down to see her green eyes. When Yu looks at Emma, she sees worry in her freckles and slight droop in her eyelashes to which she assures her by putting her hands on her shoulders.

“I may not last long to see you, Ayumu-chan, Setsuna-chan, and Ai-chan graduate but I want to feel your warmth once more.” Emma confesses as if she will not see Yu again in the future “Maybe a few times before we part ways. At the end, I want to see you happy with Ayumu-chan and Setsuna-chan. Will you promise to cherish your friends while I’ll be gone?” Emma's promise comes with Yu blushing in response. Emma was glad Yu took her out, probably her last time alone. With only a few months left in her presence in Nijigasaki High, she has to look forward into the future and let go of what she dreamed of. Maybe, not a lot but where she is now.

“Sure, Emma-san.” Yu accepts her promise “Thanks for hearing my story. Ayumu really means a lot to see Sei-chan again. One day.” While Yu and Emma’s date looked like romantic subtext, they stay friends to the end as how all School Idol members treat Yu.

Few minutes later, Emma leaves Yu to search for the lost Karin and Yu is left alone to wait for her bus to fetch her. Yu will be missing her seniors very soon but time is inevitable, even her relationship with Ayumu, Setsuna, her juniors, and even life.

“One day.” Yu recalls her mind to know one important thing before ending the Valentine’s story “Sei-chan, I want to know if you are Setsuna-chan.”

The End. Ayumu and Setsuna’s Arc is over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Polyamory Part is over, I am now back to writing pairing parts. Here’s what to expect.  
> This Part is the End of 'Ayumu and Setsuna' Arc, next arc after this part will be 'Yu and Setsuna' Arc.
> 
>   * Slice of life will slowly deteriorate and deconstruct, Drama will begin after the second Polyamory Part
>   * First parts before “Yu, Ayumu, and Setsuna’s Valentine’s Triangle” focus on Ayumu and Setsuna.
>   * Next parts before “White Day Triangle” will focus on Yu and Setsuna.
>   * Last parts before “Polyamory Blossoms” will focus on Ayumu and Yu.
>   * Childhood memories of Yu, Ayumu, and Sei will be brought up in parts involving the polyamory together
> 



End file.
